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Book._y O Co 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 









THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 




THE BOYS’ 
MILITARY MANUAL 


A BOOK OF INFORMATION ABOUT OUR 
ARMY AND THE FIRST PRINCIPLES 
OF MILITARY SERVICE 
FOR BOYS 

BY 

VIRGIL D. COLLINS 

Sergt. Co. C, 12TH Infantry, N.Y. G. 

AUTHOR OF “A WORKING ALGEBRA,” 

CO-AUTHOR ‘‘THE BOYS’ BOOK OF SUBMARINES” AND 
‘‘SHOOTING FOR boys” 


ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR 


NEW YORK 

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright, 1918, by 
Frederick A. Stokes Company 


All Rights Reserved 



JljN 14 ‘. aid 
©CI.A499362 


( 



TO 

MY MOTHER 




A WORD ABOUT YOUR BOY 


This is not a book of militarism but a manual 
of prevention and defense, and one that every 
American boy should have. If your boy is be¬ 
tween the ages of twelve and eighteen you should 
give him this book, and see that he gets the proper 
military training. 

The Great War has proved the necessity of a 
large trained army too well. So long as govern¬ 
ments continue to maintain armies, we will have 
war and your boy will be called to the colors some 
day in the defense of his country. Certainly you 
who have provided for him everything that is 
good, will not want to see him enter the army totally 
unfit and unprepared for military duty. 

Further, a thorough military education now will 
enable your son to become an officer in the Army 
later on. It will strengthen his body as no sport 
can do, and it will increase the activity of his mind 
as no school work can do. If he gains nothing 
but the health that will accrue to him from the 
training, then it will have accomplished its purpose. 
Moreover, universal military training will be the 

vii 


A WORD ABOUT YOUR BOY 


next step in the military history of our country, 
and if your boy gets his training now, at some 
recognized school, he will not have to take it later 
when he needs his time most. 

So it is first of all your duty to your country 
to see that your son gets a military training and 
to let him volunteer for the Army when he has it. 
Second, it is your duty to yourself as a parent to 
see that he gets the best training that you can 
afford. Finally, it is your duty to your boy to see 
that he receives the benefits of a military training 
which not only will enable him to serve his country 
best, but which will be best for him; for no one 
else can or will do this but you. 

Virgil D. Collins 

The Cromwell 
600 Riverside Drive 
New York 


vm 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

A Word About Your Boy . . . vii 

I. Why You Should Have a Military 

Training. T 

The Hero of Olden Days Was Always 
a Trained Soldier—Why You Should 
Be a Trained Soldier—How Your 
Country Protects You—Why You 
Must Fight For Your Country—How 
a Trained Army Stopped the Ger¬ 
mans—Our Need of Officers—Why 
an Officer Must be Educated—How 
War Changes Army Needs—Compul¬ 
sory Military Training Helps You as 
Well as the Army—Training Now 
Will Help You Later—How to Serve 
Your Country Best. 

II. Where You Can Get Your Training io 

About Military Schools—Next, Local 
Organizations—Then State Organiza¬ 
tions—The Slater Law and Military 
Training—And Last of All, National 
Organizations — How to Pass the 
Physical Examination for the Regular 
Army — Your Physical Examination 
and How to Pass It. 


IX 


X 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

III. The Make-up of Our Army 

A Mistaken Idea of Our Army—The 
Army as It Really Is—The General 
Staff—The Field Army and Its Offi¬ 
cers—The Company: Its Divisions 
and Officers—How to Tell an Offi¬ 
cer’s Grade—About Army Corps— 
The Engineer Corps — The Signal 
Corps—Some Other Corps—On Get¬ 
ting a Commission in a Corps—The 
Spirit of the Army. 

IV. The School of the Soldier 

Why an Officer Must Know the 
School of the Soldier—About Being 
Neatly Uniformed—How to Get into 
Your Uniform—About Giving Com¬ 
mands—Movements Executed by the 
Soldier — How to Practice These 
Drills. 

V. The School of the Squad .... 

What a Squad Is—The Value of Drill 
—On Forming a Squad—How to 
Drill a Squad—The Execution of 
Squad Movements. 

VI. The School of the Company . 

Company Movements Are Similar to 
Squad Movements—The Officers of 
the Company and Their Duties— 
How the Company is Formed—The 
Execution of Company Movements. 


PAGE 

21 


33 


48 


63 


CONTENTS 


xi 


CHAPTER PAGE 

VII. The Manual of Arms.85 

The Regulation Army Piece—How 
the Piece Is Loaded and Fired—The 
Important Parts of the Piece—Move¬ 
ments Performed with the Piece. 

VIII. How to Learn Signaling . . . . 102 

About Arm Signaling—How to Signal 
with Flags—Conventional Signals and 
Instructions for the Two-Arm Sema¬ 
phore Code—The General Service 
Code—Sound Signaling. 

IX. How to Become an Expert Marksman 124 

Rifle Firing Positions — The Rear 
Sights — How to Aim — The Right 
Way to Fire—Pistol and Revolver 
Shooting — About Estimating Dis¬ 
tance—The First Principles of Bay¬ 
onet Fighting—How to Hold the Piece 
—On Bayonet Practice. 

X. Military Map Reading and Making . 139 

The Value of Maps to an Army—The 
Kinds of Maps in Military Use—On 
Learning to Read Contour Maps— 
About Contour Lines — What You 
Can Tell From a Contour Map—How 
to Draw a Profile Map—The Value 
of the Profile—How to Tell the Scale 
of a Map—On Finding the Direction 
—How Hatchure Maps Are Made— 

The Symbols Used in Map Making— 

How to Make Maps—Where to Buy 
Contour Maps. 




CONTENTS 


Xll 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XI. How to Become an Officer . . . 156 

Why You Must Have a High School 
Education—The Value of a Special 
Training—What You Can Do—How 
You Can Get a Commission in the 
Army—About the Aviation Section 
of the Signal Corps—West Point as a 
Means of Getting a Commission. 

XII. On Keeping Your Equipment in 

Shape. 164 

About Your Uniform—How to Clean 
Your Uniform—On Washing Your 
Leggins — About Your Shoes — The 
Care of the Rifle—Cleaning the Bar¬ 
rel—Cleaning the Receiver—Clean¬ 
ing the Stock and Forearm—Cleaning 
the Bayonet — The Mess-kit — On 
Washing Sleeping-Blankets—About 
the Soldier’s Pack—The Officer and 
His Equipment. 

XIII. Fighting Over There .176 

About Marching — The Advance 
Guard — The Trenches — Over the 
Top. 

XIV. War Information and Advice . . . 192 

First Aid to the Wounded— About 
Your Health—Hints on Roughing It 
—On Keeping Your Temper—Brav¬ 
ery and Truthfulness at All Times— 

More About Insignia— War Words, 
Terms, and Phrases You Should 
Know the Meaning Of. 

Index.205 




THE BOYS' MILITARY 

MANUAL 


CHAPTER I 

WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE A MILITARY 

TRAINING 

Haven’t you often felt sorry that the days of real 
adventure, when swarthy pirates sailed the seas, 
and gallant gentlemen fought for King and Country 
were over? 

But so long as nations continue to settle their 
disputes by the barbarous custom of the hand- 
to-hand conflict, adventure will always be with us, 
just as much as it was in the good old days of 
William Kidd or Jim Bowie, and you will get 
your share of it. 

Well, adventure is here and it is calling to you 
and to all red-blooded boys. Peaceful merchant¬ 
men have been attacked by pirates, perhaps not 
the kind that scoured the Spanish Main in buc- 

l 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


caneering sloops, but even more dangerous, for 
they strike their booty from underneath with all of 
the swiftness and deadliness of the hated water- 
moccasin. 1 These pirates are of the underseas kind 
and their craft is the dreaded submarine. 

As for gallant gentlemen, there has never been 
such a gathering before, for the noblest cavaliers of 
France, England, Belgium, Italy, and the United 
States, have fought side by side for King or 
Country. Truly adventure is not dead and the 
time is now at hand when you can show the kind 
of good American stuff you. are made of, either 
by preparing now so that when your country needs 
you you will be able to take your place with other 
trained men, or by training now so that you can 
volunteer and fight for your flag and the country 
you love, when the time comes. 

The Hero of Olden Days Was Always a 
Trained Soldier —Ever since you were old enough 
to read and glory in the tales of our War for 
Independence and of the heroes that fought then, 
you have felt that if the time should ever come 
when you could fight for or help your country you 
would do it as gladly as Washington or Crockett, 
Perry or Marion did, and you never doubted but 
that you could do it as well. Of course you are 

1 The water-moccasin is a deadly snake found in the 
Southern States and much feared. 


2 


MILITARY TRAINING 


old enough now to see that the reason these and 
other famous Americans were able to do what 
they did was because they were either trained 
soldiers or trained frontiersmen, and that you could 
not do it because you have had no such training. 
So here you are living in the greatest age of ad¬ 
venture and chivalry, and yet if your country should 
call you to the colors you could not answer because 
you would not be ready. 

Why You Should Be a Trained Soldier —It is 
plain, then, that the thing for you to do is to get a 
military training, for every true American should 
be ready to serve his country the best he can at 
all times, and without the training you simply can’t 
do it. In the next chapter I shall tell you how and 
where to get a military training, but first of all I 
want to give you a few good reasons why you should 
get it, and of what use it will be to you after you 
have it. 

How Your Country Protects You —As you 

know, it is a country's duty to its citizens or sub¬ 
jects to protect them from danger at all times, 
both in peace and in war. This it does in time of 
peace with its laws, backed up by the police force, 
which prevent theft, open murder, and other crimes, 
and punish the offenders. The National Guard 
prevents and puts down such uprisings, riots, and 
like disturbances to the peace and safety of citi- 

3 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


zens as the police force cannot handle. In a place 
where there is no fixed government, or where the 
government is not run right, as for instance Mexico, 
bloodshed is a daily occurrence and property be¬ 
longs to the man who is strong or cunning enough 
to take and hold it. A law-abiding citizen has no 
chance at all. So you see you are being protected 
every day of your life in time of peace by your 
country. 

Why You Must Fight for Your Country —In 

time of war the government still protects its citi¬ 
zens from invading and hostile countries by means 
of its army and navy. But of course it can’t do 
this if it has no army, and it can’t do it well if it 
hasn’t got a trained army, and since it protects 
you in time of peace you must see that it is your 
duty to do your bit and help provide the trained 
army which protects your home and your country 
from danger. 

Now and then you will hear some fellow say 
that he doesn’t see why he should fight for his 
country since it has never helped him, but he doesn’t 
stop to think, and if he does then he has no right 
to be a citizen of any country, much less of the 
United States. Unless a fellow is going to be loyal 
to his country he belongs up near the North Pole 
somewhere, where he will never have to fight any¬ 
thing but cold, hunger, and walruses and where 

4 


MILITARY TRAINING 


he will have no country to protect him and to help 
protect. A fellow of this kind is called a slacker, 
but my idea of it is that he is worse than a traitor, 
for his statement is treason and may keep some 
one else from enlisting. 

How a Trained Army Stopped the Germans— 

But to get back to the subject, you can easily un¬ 
derstand that a country without a trained army 
cannot fight another country with a trained army 
and hope to win. For the past twenty years or 
more Germany has made it her boast that her army 
was the best trained army on the face of the earth, 
and certainly the Big War has proved that it was 
no idle talk. England, on the other hand, has never 
tried to keep a large standing army, which means 
a trained army, but has placed her faith rather 
in her splendid navy which has earned for her 
the title “Mistress of the Seas.” France has al¬ 
ways been forced to maintain a large and efficient 
army, for she is a coast country and, ever since 
the days of the Louis’s, she has had to fight to keep 
from being pushed off into the sea. It was the 
combined effort of England’s navy and France’s 
army that kept the Germans from winning at the 
beginning of the war as they had long planned 
and hoped to. But even this combination, with the 
forces of Italy, Belgium, and Russia helping, was 

5 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


not enough to beat the Germans, and so punish Ger¬ 
many as she deserved. 

Our Need of Officers' —Now an army requires 
officers and while men can be found who can be 
trained in a short time to become good privates, 
men who are fit for officers are few and far be¬ 
tween, and their course of training must naturally 
cover a much longer time. And so our great need 
is always for officers and you have every chance 
to become one of them. 

Why an Officer Must Be Educated —To become 
an officer in the army you must in the first place 
be educated as well as if not better than the average 
business man, for the business of war is a far 
more serious and skillful proposition than any mere 
mercantile affair, because the lives of many men 
are concerned. This is one of the reasons why 
you who are going to school now can become an 
officer providing, of course, that you get the proper 
military training. You are young now and are fast 
learning, but by the time you are old enough to 
volunteer you will have a good education, and if 
you follow my advice you will be all that an A 
number one officer of the American army should be. 

How War Changes Army Needs —It is a well 
known fact that for every year a war lasts the re¬ 
quirements for a commission in the army as an 
officer get less and still less stiff. Thus before 

6 


MILITARY TRAINING 


our entry into the Big War an army officer had 
to be a graduate of West Point and at least twen¬ 
ty-one years of age. But as soon as we had de¬ 
clared war the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps 
commissioned men who were only college grad¬ 
uates. A few months later the age was lowered 
from twenty-one to nineteen years, and the last 
change was to enable men of high school educa¬ 
tion to get a commission. 

So you can see that when an army needs men it 
can’t be too particular. If you have studied the 
l'.istory of our Civil War you will remember that 
over half of the Confederate army was made up 
of boys under nineteen years of age. From all 
these facts it is plain that when a country is at 
war, and men become scarce, boys are called to 
fill the ranks. Certainly if you are going to be 
called it is up to you to do your best to get a com¬ 
mission, for you can if you try. 

Compulsory Military Training Helps You as 
Well as the Army—Some time ago a lazv requiring 
military training for schoolboys from sixteen to 
nineteen years of age living in the State of New 
York was passed. Perhaps you may wonder why 
it named schoolboys only, and if so I will tell you. 
If you are a schoolboy you will soon be a college 
student, and college students are the material from 
which good officers can be picked. These same 

7 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


schoolboys who are drilling now will not become 
ordinary privates in the army when they are needed, 
for the training this law will give them and the 
education they will have will fit them to be officers, 
and if you are drilling now you will be one of them. 
In other words the law helps the army by providing 
men capable of becoming officers and it helps you 
by giving you the training necessary for an officer. 
It is one of the best laws ever passed and I hope 
that soon every state in the Union will have a 
similar one. 

Training Now Will Help You Later—There is 
still another way that getting a military training 
now will be of use to you. From now on compul¬ 
sory military training will probably be a fixed law, 
but you will have had yours and you will not have 
to take it over again when you are a busy man 
making so much money that you don’t know what 
to do with it. Furthermore, for the next ten years 
at least things will be done in a military way, and 
unless you have a military training you will be 
behind the times, which will keep you from making 
money. 

How to Serve Your Country Best—And now 

just a word or two more about serving your coun¬ 
try. If you are between the ages of twelve and 
eighteen you can serve your country and yourself 
best by taking a course in military training so 

8 


MILITARY TRAINING 


that you will be fit and ready for the time when 
you are needed. If you are eighteen or over you 
can serve best by taking a course in military train¬ 
ing and then applying for a commission in the 
army as will be told later. If you fail to receive 
the commission it will be because you are not fitted 
for an officer’s work, and then the only way open to 
you is to enlist as a private, and to fight your hardest 
for Old Glory until the last enemy trench is taken, 
should the opportunity occur. 


9 


CHAPTER II 


WHERE YOU CAN GET YOUR TRAINING 

As I told you before, you should, by all means, 
get a military training, and I am going to tell you 
some of the ways for getting it. Of these methods 
there will most likely be one that you will be able 
to pursue, and you can take your pick of them. 

In the first place I will suppose that you are 
twelve or over, have had no military training, and 
want one very much. If this is the case you have 
only two courses left open to you to follow: 

About Military Schools —One of these is to go 
to a military school. Now all military schools are 
private schools, and like most schools of this kind 
they charge for your tuition and board. Before 
you can go to one you must convince your parents 
that this is the thing for you to do, and if you let 
them read the preface and first chapter of this 
book, I believe that they will see things your way. 
On the other hand if they can’t, don’t be disap¬ 
pointed but look over the rest of this chapter and 

10 


WHERE YOU CAN GET YOUR TRAINING 


you will find that there is something else that you 
can do. 

In the first place a military school will give you 
as good an education as any elementary and high 
school will, and it will at the same time provide 
you with a military training that you could not 
better except by joining the Regular Army and 
actually fighting. The heads and instructors in 
these schools are usually old and experienced army 
men from whom you will receive your instruc¬ 
tion first hand. The school work is not any harder 
than in any ordinary school, and the military train¬ 
ing just breaks nicely the dull monotony of school 
life. Further, athletics and other sports are pro¬ 
vided for you, and a few years at a military school 
will go a long way toward making a man of you. 
There is a good military school or academy in 
nearly every state in the Union, and so you need 
not go far from home. A few of them are as fol¬ 
lows: New York Military Academy, Cornwall-on- 
Hudson; Bordentown Military Academy, Borden- 
town, N. J.; St. John’s Military Academy, Wis¬ 
consin; Junior Plattsburg Camp, Plattsburg, N. Y.; 
and the Virginia Military Institute. Moreover, all 
of the State Colleges give government military 
courses. You can take your pick of these schools, 
which are all good, or you can look in almost any 

II 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


magazine and in the advertising section you will 
find a larger list to choose from. 

Next, Local Organizations —A second but not 
so good a way of getting a military training is 
to join some local organization. Many towns, vil¬ 
lages, and clubs have cadet corps organized very 
often under the able supervision of some retired 
army officer. If there is no such corps in your 
town and you want a military training real bad 
you will get up one of your own, enlisting the 
aid of an army officer or some one with military 
experience, and enlisting the money of some of 
the rich men in your town. This is never very 
hard to do, for there will be plenty of fellows 
who will want to belong and men with money al¬ 
ways take a kindly interest in anything that will 
bring credit to their home town, so that they may 
bask in its reflected light and warmth. 

Then State Organizations —The old National 
Guard used to be the main military organization of 
every state. Upon our declaration of war, how¬ 
ever, the National Guard was mustered into the 
Regular Army, and as a consequence there was 
left no militia to quell riots, and do the other nec¬ 
essary things that an organization of this kind 
must do. As a result Home Guards were or¬ 
ganized, but these have proved a failure, for they 

12 


WHERE YOU CAN GET YOUR TRAINING 


are not authorized by the state and so have no 
real power. 

Thus if a home guardsman strikes a citizen over 
the head with his club, the citizen can immediately 
have him arrested and charged with assault and 
battery. If he kills a man in the carrying out of 
his duty he must suffer the consequences just as 
any other man. 

To get around all these faults of the Home 
Guard and to give the states a means of defense 
a state guard similar to the old National Guard 
has been organized by many states, and if you 
are seventeen or over you can join this branch. 
As the new state guard is a very recent thing there 
has been much difficulty in securing officers for it, 
and if you read this book carefully you will have 
no trouble in becoming an officer in it. 

Admission to the state guard is very easy, the 
physical examination being nominal. 

The purpose of the state guard is to quell riots, 
do guard duty, etc., during such time as it be¬ 
comes necessary. The enlistment period is for 
two years. If after enlisting in the state guard 
you should make up your mind to enlist in the 
Regular Army, you will meet with no opposition 
and your name will immediately be dropped from 
the rolls. Should business interfere seriously with 
your attendance of drills, inspections and musters, 

13 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


you can arrange to be absent. If you move to 
another state your name is automatically dropped 
from the rolls and you are given an honorable 
discharge from the guard. 

You will receive a fine training in the guard 
from regular army officers, and taken all in all it 
is a fine chance for you to do your bit in an easy 
way, and you ought by all means to join it. Go to 
the nearest armory and ask for particulars. I 
might add that the guard never leaves the state, 
that is to say it is for state duty only. 

The Slater Law and Military Training—Back 
in the last chapter I told you about the Slater law 
which has been passed in New York State. By 
the time this book comes from press, if you have 
not already started drilling, it will then be time 
for you to do so. Drills are provided for boys 
falling under the Slater law at nearly all the 
armories in the State. You will be thoroughly drilled 
in the school of the soldier, squad, and company, 
as well as in rifle and bayonet fighting, and the man¬ 
ual of arms. The drills are short and interesting 
and you should try to attend them whether you 
have to or not. All of the New York high schools 
have their own corps and have made provision so 
that their students can comply with the Slater law. 
Of the two places to drill you will find your high 
school easiest but the armory best. 

14 


WHERE YOU CAN GET YOUR TRAINING 


And Last of All, National Organizations— 

There are two national organizations where you 
will be able to get a good military training, and 
these are (i) The United States Military Academy 
at West Point and (2) The Regular Army . 1 

When you read Chapter X you will find out 
all about admission to West Point, for it is there 
that our Regular Army officers are turned out in 
time of peace. The Regular Army is the best 
place for you to get your military training, for in 
so doing you are serving your country in a time 
of need in the best way you can. Before trying 
to enlist in the Regular Army, however, be sure 
to read Chapter XI. 

How to Pass the Physical Examination for the 
Regular Army—Now I want to give you a few 
tips on enlisting in our Regular Army. In the first 
place you must be eighteen years of age. Do not 
try to enlist if you are under eighteen, for you will 
be found out sooner or later and it will go hard 
with you. 

The following table shows what your weight 
should be for your height, as well as your chest 
measurements both at expiration and inhalation of 
the breath. 

1 The Regular Army is made up of volunteers, the 
National Army of drafted men. 

15 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Physical Proportions 




Minimum or smallest 

Height 

Minimum or 
lowest weight 

chest measure 

in 

in 

At expiration of 

At inhalation of 

inches 

pounds 

breath in inches 

breath in inches 

64 

120 

30 

32 

65 

122 

30 

32 

66 

I 24 

30 ^ 

32^2 

67 

126 

31 

33 

68 

129 

31 34 

33 % 

69 

133 

3P/2 

34 

70 

135 

32 

3434 

7 i 

I 42 

3 234 

34 Y\ 

72 

149 

32 ^ 

35/4 

73 

156 

33M 

36/4 


Vision —You should be able to see clearly block 
letter type half an inch high at 20 feet, with both 
the right and left eye separately and without glasses. 

Color Perception —Color blindness may disqual¬ 
ify you. 

Hearing —You should be able to hear a whisper 
at 20 feet in a quiet room. Each ear should be 
tested separately. 

Figure and General Appearance —The various 
parts of your body should be well developed; head 
symmetrical, chest developed and well formed, the 
abdomen lank and the limbs shapely with firm de¬ 
veloped muscles. The face should indicate mental 

16 














WHERE YOU CAN GET YOUR TRAINING 


health and vigor and should be free from erup¬ 
tions. 

Weight —Marked disproportion of weight to 
height need not be a cause for rejection. 

Height —Minimum height is 64 inches. 

Respiratory System —Marked evidence of de¬ 
formity or disease of the lungs and of active dis¬ 
ease may disqualify you. 

Bones and Joints —Stiffness of joints sufficient 
to interfere with the duties of a soldier disqualifies. 

Flatfoot —Complete flatfoot will disqualify you. 
Test the strength of your foot by walking on the 
toes, hopping and similar exercises. 

Skin —Eruptions of the skin of a nature to be 
objectionable, unhealed ulcers, or very severe acne 
disqualifies. 

Nose —Loss of the nose, malformations and de¬ 
formities therefore that interfere with speech or 
breathing are causes for rejection. 

Throat —Deformity or disease sufficient to in¬ 
terfere with speech disqualifies. 

Teeth —You must have four serviceable double 
teeth, two above and two below and one over the 
other so as to enable you to chew your food 
properly. 

Nervous System —Nervous diseases are disquali¬ 
fying. 

17 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Heart —Organic heart disease sufficient to inter- 
fere with the duties of a soldier disqualifies. 

Digestive System —Chronic diseases of the stom¬ 
ach, such as chronic dyspepsia, gastric ulcer, and 
dysentery, affecting the general nutrition, are causes 
for rejection. Chronic appendicitis and chronic 
enlargement of the liver or spleen are causes for 
rejection. 

If you do not come quite up to these specifica¬ 
tions do not be discouraged but try to enlist any¬ 
way. The chances are they will take you. Of 
course if you are under 21 you must have your 
parent's consent to enlist. The enlistment papers 
must also be signed by your parent or guardian. 

Your Physical Examination and How to Pass 
It—The night before you arc ready to enlist be 
sure and go to bed early and get a good night's 
sleep. Then get down to the enlisting station 
sharply at 9 o’clock the next morning. There will 
not be many fellows there then, the enlisting offi¬ 
cers won’t be tired out, and altogether you will 
do far better than you would by strolling in late 
in the afternoon. 

You will be asked a number of questions and 
you must answer them all truthfully. Be prepared 
to give the date of your birth, the name, address, 
and business of your parent or guardian as well 
as his birthplace. 


18 


WHERE YOU CAN GET YOUR TRAINING 


When it comes to your chest measurement be 
sure that you get the last sign of air out for the 
first measurement, and all the air and a little more 
in for the second measurement, and you will have 
no trouble there. 

If you find yourself a few pounds underweight 
eat a couple of salt mackerel for your breakfast, 
washing them down with a bucket of water and 
you will be surprised to find how much more you 
weigh. 

There are two things that you ought to practice 
before you set out to enlist, and one of these is 
hopping. You will be asked to hop on the ball 
of each foot separately for a distance of from 
twenty to thirty feet, with your shoes off. Some 
fellows have a little difficulty in doing this, espe¬ 
cially if they have never tried it before, and you 
should practice it at home two or three times. 

The other thing that you should do is to get a 
regular optician’s sight testing card with large let¬ 
ters at the top running to small letters at the bot¬ 
tom. You should set this card in your room at a 
distance of twenty feet, cover first one eye with a 
card and then the other, looking at the lower lines 
until you can read them with ease. Ten minutes’ 
practice this way each day for a week will 
strengthen your sight wonderfully, and you can 
then pass the eye test easily. 

!9 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


There is one other thing that you should not do 
and that is to get nervous. Just remember that 
no one is going to ask you to do anything you 
can’t, and you will get along famously with the 
enlisting officer, whom you will find to be a nice 
chap for all his businesslike manner. 


20 


CHAPTER III 


THE MAKE-UP OF OUR ARMY 

From now on through the book I shall try to 
tell you some of the most important things that 
you should know, if you are going to try to get 
a commission in the army as an officer. 

Of course you cannot expect to learn from any 
book everything that a young officer should know, 
for as I have already told you a continued course 
of military training, and a little real fighting, is 
the only way of becoming a good officer that I 
know of. On the other hand you will be able to 
get much out of this book that will serve you well 
when you start training, will help you get a com¬ 
mission, and will make you feel quite at home in a 
uniform. 

A Mistaken Idea of Our Army—One of the 
first things that you should know about is our 
army, and how it is run. Most boys have a badly 
mistaken idea of war, the army, and of an officer’s 
duties, for they think that all an officer has to do 
is to lead a company of valiant soldiers on to vic- 

21 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


tory, shouting orders and words of encouragement, 
and waving his sword the while, with an occasional 
shot at the enemy with his revolver. This is the 
popular idea and it is quite natural, for it is all we 
ever read about in our school histories and blood- 
and-thunder war stories. But to get down to cases, 
an officer has but little chance nowadays to do 
these heroic things, for there are other duties that 
are far more important. 

The Army as It Really Is—As you know, an 
army is made up of a large body of picked and 
trained men, called privates, and about whom you 
will learn more later, who are commanded by men 
who know more about war than they do and who 
are called officers. Now, privates are human be¬ 
ings just like any of the rest of us and must be 
clothed, fed, taken care of when sick or wounded, 
and kept in the very pink of condition by every 
known medical, sanitary, and commissary means, 
for a sick soldier is a useless burden and expense 
to an army. In time of peace, when our stand¬ 
ing army is small, and the men are quartered in 
comfortable barracks near railroads, it is easy to 
feed and clothe them, and there is not much sick¬ 
ness. But in time of war the army swells to thirty 
or forty times its peace size, it is almost con¬ 
stantly on the move, the enemy may shut it off 
from outside help, the men must be out-of-doors 


22 


THE MAKE-UP OF OUR ARMY 


in all weathers, and men are wounded every day. 
As a result of all these hardships it is a big man’s 
job to keep the army clothed right, fed right, and 
in good health, and it is up to the officers to see 
that these things are done. 

The General Staff—Now an army is like a 
large family, for it must have a head to scheme 
and provide for it. But an army is so much larger 
than even the largest family that Brigham Young 
or even Solomon ever dreamed of that one head 
cannot possibly manage it all, and so the duties of 
looking after it is split up among several heads, 
each of which has a department under him to carry 
out his orders. This body of officers is known as 
the General Staff. It is made up of men who are 
the best experts in their respective lines that can 
be found in the country, for it is the brains of the 
Army 1 , and upon it depends chiefly whether or 
not the army will be a successful one. The officers 
of the General Staff study the plans of campaigns 
and decide other things of a like nature. The 
strategic moves fall to the general in command of 
the army and not to the Staff officers. The final re- 

1 The President is Commander-in-Chief of our Army by 
the Constitution of the United States. He is at the head 
of the War Department, which is organized to take care 
of and control the army under his supervision. 

23 


Fig. i. 


THE GENERAL STAFF 


t 


THE FIELD ARMY 
LIEUTENANT fa GENERAL 


THE DIVISION 

MAJOR faGENERRL 


r 


THE BRIGADE 
BRIGADIER fa GENERAL 


I 


THE REGIMENT 


t 


THE mCOLONE/] 


I 


THE BATTALION 

I 

THEto MAJOR 


1 


THECOMPANY 

f \ 

CAPTAIN 


Our Army ; Its Divisions and Their Commanding 
Officers in Order of Rank 

24 















THE MAKE-UP OF OUR ARMY 


sponsibility for the safety and welfare of the army 
rests upon the commanding officers in the field. 

The Field Army and Its Officers—After the 
General Staff comes the field army, under the com¬ 
mand of a Lieutenant-General. It is still further 
divided into divisions which are commanded by a 
Major-General. The division is split up into lesser 
units, each of which has its own headquarters. 
Thus a field army may contain an infantry division 
and a cavalry division. A division is the smallest 
arm of the service which is at the same time large 
and complete enough to serve as an army in itself. 

In the infantry division are the infantry brigades, 
each of which is commanded by a Brigadier-Gen¬ 
eral. A brigade can be either infantry, cavalry, or 
artillery, and the latter two may be attached to an 
infantry division, in which case they are called di¬ 
visional brigades. The brigade, if infantry, con¬ 
sists of three regiments, or if cavalry, or artillery, 
of two regiments, each of which is under the com¬ 
mand of a Colonel (pronounced kernel). A regi¬ 
ment is made up of three battalions, each of which 
is commanded by a Major. A battalion is again 
divided into four companies, each of which has a 
Captain at its head. The company besides its Cap¬ 
tain has its Lieutenants (pronounced “lieutenant” 
in the United States and “lef tenant” in Great 
Britain) and non-commissioned officers such as 

25 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Sergeants and Corporals, all of which is shown 
in Fig. i. 

The Company: Its Divisions and Officers— 

Since the company is the largest arm of the army 
in which the officer in charge—who is the Captain— 
handles his men directly, it is the one that concerns 
you most, and hence you ought to know most about 
it. You will learn all about the duties of the Cap¬ 
tain, Lieutenants, and non-commissioned officers of 
the company, when drilling the men a little fur¬ 
ther on. 

As a company is too large a body of men to 
be handled well by an officer single-handed, Lieu¬ 
tenants are appointed whose duty it is to carry out 
the commands of and act for the Captain, or to 
command portions of the company when in actual 
war service. To make the company still easier to 
handle it is divided into platoons, and each platoon 
is divided into squads of eight, men each. At the 
head of each squad is a non-commissioned officer 
who is called a Corporal. He is an enlisted man 
who has been given this position by reason of his 
knowledge of military orders, and his ability to 
give orders and see that they are carried out 
by the men in his squad. Each platoon of squads 
is still further commanded by a Sergeant, who 
is also an enlisted man, and who sees to it that 
the Corporals in his platoon give their orders 

26 


THE MAKE-UP OF OUR ARMY 


properly, and that the platoon executes them prop¬ 
erly. He is also a non-commissioned officer, but 
he is higher in rank than a Corporal. 

So you see that the army is like a big machine 
made of many parts, each of which must mesh 
with and move other parts, it being necessary for 
the whole to run like clockwork. 

How to Tell an Officer’s Grades—It is a good 
idea to be able to tell the grade or rank of an 
officer whenever you see one, and the following 
table gives the ranks and titles of officers, the 
General being the highest and the Second Lieu¬ 
tenant the lowest, as well as the insignia or de¬ 
vices that they wear and by which you can tell 
them apart. As a rule these devices will be found 
on the olive drab shirt collar, shoulder straps of 
coats, and upon the sleeves of the overcoat; thus 

A General wears four silver stars. 

A Lieutenant-General wears one large silver star be¬ 
tween two smaller ones. 

A Major-General wears two silver stars. 

A Brigadier-General wears one silver star. 

A Colonel wears a silver eagle. 

A Lieutenant-Colonel wears a silver oak leaf. 

A Major wears a gold oak leaf. 

A Captain wears two silver bars. 

A First Lieutenant wears one silver bar. 

A Second Lieutenant wears one gold bar. 

27 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


When you meet an officer in his overcoat there 
is only one way of telling his rank, and that is 
by the rows of braid that he wears on the sleeves. 
All the Generals (General, Lieutenant-General, Ma¬ 
jor-General and Brigadier-General) wear one wide 
and one narrow band of black braid. A Colonel 
wears loops having five rows of black braid; a 
Lieutenant-Colonel four rows; a Major three; a 
Captain two; a First Lieutenant one row of black 
braid; while a Second Lieutenant wears loops made 
of one row of brown braid. 

About Army Corps—Besides the divisions of 
the army I told you about before there are other 
arms of the service known as Corps (pronounced 
cores; singular core). A corps consists of two 
or more divisions of the army which work to¬ 
gether and it usually has a separate staff of offi¬ 
cers from the General Staff, although they are 
still under the command of the General Staff. 

A corps is organized for a special purpose, some¬ 
times for fighting, but more often for providing 
the army with the necessary means of offense and 
defense. 

The Engineer Corps—Thus we have the Engi¬ 
neer Corps which is made up largely of trained 
engineers, whose duty it is to construct roads, 
build bridges and cut trenches and other like works 
that an army must have but which an infantry or 

28 


THE MAKE-UP OF OUR ARMY 


cavalry division would be unable to make. The 
Engineer Corps is not made up necessarily of 
trained soldiers, but of the best civilian engineers 
that the army can get hold of, for a civilian engi¬ 
neer can do all of this work without previous 
military training. 

The Signal Corps—Another of our corps is 
known as the Signal Corps. This corps is used 
to make it possible for the General Staff to get mes¬ 
sages to and from the field armies. In this way the 
master-minds of the General Staff are able to di¬ 
rect the movements of the army from positions of 
advantage. The Signal Corps is divided into Sec¬ 
tions, there being those that take care of the wire¬ 
less, or radio companies as they are called, those 
that take care of the wire or telegraph companies, 
and the Aviation Section which looks after the 
fliers. 

Some Other Corps—There are two other corps 
which are important although they do not do any 
actual fighting, and these are the Medical Corps 
and the Hospital Corps. Without them hundreds 
of thousands of lives would be needlessly lost, and 
many wounded soldiers would suffer for the want 
of a doctor's care, or a surgeon’s skill. 

On Getting a Commission in a Corps—And 
right here I want to say that you stand a far bet¬ 
ter chance of getting a commission in the Engi- 

29 



THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


neer Corps or Signal Corps if you are properly 
trained than in any other arm of the service, for 
the very reason that civilians without any military 
training are accepted, and naturally if you have 
one it counts in your favor. 

The Spirit of the Army—Each of the officers 
mentioned in the table showing their rank has the 
right to give orders to his inferior officer who must 
carry them out without question. Indeed this is 
the spirit of the army, namely, absolute obedience 
to orders at all times; it is the one thing that every 
private and every officer must have drilled into 
him, and it is the thing that you must learn now 
if you are to become an army man at all. 

In general an army is made up of two classes 
of men and these are (i) enlisted men or privates 
and non-commissioned officers and (2) commis¬ 
sioned officers. Besides being a fighter the enlisted 
man is a worker just as much as a carpenter who 
works upon the building of a house under the 
direction of a boss. If the carpenter fails to do 
his work well he is discharged, for the boss has 
his reputation and living at stake and cannot afford 
to lose them through the carelessness of a work¬ 
man. It very often occurs that a workman will 
not obey the orders of his boss because he thinks 
that he knows the better what to do. However, 
this does not alter the fact that the reason that 

30 c 


THE MAKE-UP OF OUR ARMY 


he is a workman, and the boss is the boss, is be¬ 
cause he knows better than any workman under 
him what has to be done. 

In the army the officers are the bosses and the 
privates are the workmen for exactly the same 
reason. But in the army disobeying an order may 
cause defeat or may cause many lives to be lost, 
and so failure to obey is punishable by death, and 
not simply by being fired as in ordinary civil life. 
Now every enlisted man knows this full well, and 
knowing it he does not have to be told again every 
time an order is given. An officer never says, 
“You must do this or else I’ll have you shot or 
imprisoned.’’ Such a statement would be an in¬ 
sult to any decent man. What he does say is 
“Do this,” and then if the order is not obeyed 
he makes out his report and lets the military law 
take its course. 

Obedience, then, is the rule of the army. An 
enlisted man may have to do things that he does 
not like to do, but he does them anyway because 
he knows that the safety of the army as well as 
his own rests upon his obeying orders. An officer 
never threatens an enlisted man, because he knows 
that if the man will not obey of his own free will, 
threatening won’t make him do it. Furthermore 
there is a spirit of father and son between the 
officer and the enlisted man. For instance, in bad, 

3i 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


rainy weather, an officer will make the rounds of 
his command two or three times between midnight 
and morning to see that his men are as comfortable 
as possible, or if he is an infantry officer he will 
take the greatest care of his men’s feet, and see 
that they do not suffer from bad shoes or socks 
on long marches. In other words, he does not let 
the fact that he is an officer make him forget 
that his men are very human, and that an act of 
kindness or a word of praise is returned to him 
by the enlisted man in a hundred different ways, 
but chiefly in the confidence that he will place in 
his officer and the instant obedience that he will 
give him, and obedience is the very life and blood 
of an army. 


32 


CHAPTER IV 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 

As you have seen from what has gone before, 
the private, or soldier as I shall call him from now 
on, is the smallest unit or part of the army, but 
he is nevertheless a most important one, for with¬ 
out him there could be no such thing as an army. 

Consequently the training of the soldier must 
be well done, or else a poor army will naturally 
be the result. The movements of a company de¬ 
pend upon the movements of the squads, and the 
movements of the squads depend upon the way 
that each and every soldier in the squad does his 
part. A squad made up of bright, alert soldiers 
with plenty of snap or swank , as the English call 
it, will follow out orders or execute commands 
in such a way that the whole company moves like 
clockwork. But if the soldier is slovenly in the 
execution of commands the movements of his com¬ 
pany will be worse than slovenly. 

Now, say you, What has all this talk about pri¬ 
vates got to do with me, for I am going to be an 

33 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


officer. My reply is: No officer can command a 
company or body of men unless he can execute his 
own commands in A number one shape, for if he 
can’t do so, he doesn’t know the meaning of the 
commands, and if this is the case he is ordering 
his men to do something but he doesn’t know what 
it is, nor would he know whether they did it right 
or not. 

Why an Officer Must Know the School of the 
Soldier —But an officer must know the school of 
the soldier as well as any soldier for another rea¬ 
son. While the drilling of new recruits falls in a 
large measure to the sergeant of a company it is, 
as a matter of fact, a part of a commissioned offi¬ 
cer’s duty, and he is not a good officer unless he 
can do it. 

And so if you are going to be an officer you must 
learn the school of the soldier until you know it 
both ways from the middle and back again, and, 
what is still more important, you must know it so 
that you can teach it to a lot of green fellows, or 
rookies as they are called, who know nothing about 
it. 

About Being Neatly Uniformed —The first thing 
that you must learn is how to carry yourself, for 
no matter how much you may know, if you haven’t 
got a neat, smart appearance you will look awk¬ 
ward. It is a curious thing but a uniform well 

34 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 


worn will make a fellow look about four times as 
smart as he really is, but if carelessly worn will 
make him look worse than sloppy. Now I want 
you to take this talk to heart and always see to 
it that after this when you are in uniform you 
are neatly and smartly dressed. As a rule a soldier 
who dresses badly is a bad soldier in ranks, and 
furthermore he shows nothing less than disrespect 
for his flag, country, and company, by wearing 
his uniform in such a way. 

No matter where you take your course of train¬ 
ing, you must have a uniform of some kind. Most 
military schools formerly used a full-dress uniform 
but it is very likely that since our joining the al¬ 
lies and getting into the war the olive drab service 
uniform of the United States will be adopted and 
used only. This consists of breeches, shoes, leg¬ 
gings, shirt, coat, and hat. 

How to Get into Your Uniform—When you 
get into your uniform the first thing you will put 
on is of course your breeches, taking care to have 
the knee lacings down the center of the side of 
the leg. You will then pull the lacing up tight, so 
that there will not be a wrinkle in the breeches be¬ 
low the knee. 

Now put on your shoes, lacing them up neatly 
and tucking the lace ends inside; polish them if 

35 




THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


you have any polish in your kit, or if not wipe 
them clean with a cloth. 

Your leggings come next; draw them on over 
your shoes and lace them up tightly, but not so 
much as to make them wrinkle. The lacing of the 
old style legging is brought up underneath, as shown 
in Fig. 2, but the new kind which has shoe straps 
must be laced up on the outside like a pair of shoes. 



Fig. 2. How the Old Style Army Leggings Are Laced 

When you get them on, look and see that the laces 
of your shoes are not hanging out—in a word, have 
everything snug and neat. 

Put your shirt on next and tuck the tails well 
down into your breeches. Then draw your belt 
just tight enough to keep them from wrinkling, and 
still hold them up. 

Now slip into your coat and button it up all 
the way. Hook the collar together at the top and 
see to it that your shirt collar lies smooth. The 

36 








THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 


shirt collar should just come even with the top of 
your coat collar, but should be underneath, and 
not on the outside as you may have seen soldiers 
wear it. 

Finally, put on your hat and set it at such an 
angle that the brim slants from back to front and 
shades .your eyes. The campaign hat now in com¬ 
mon use has a strap which you can slip around 
the back of your head to keep the hat in place. 

How to Stand at Attention—Now that you are 
properly dressed the next thing to do is to learn 
to stand like a soldier, or at attention. 

This is done by standing with your heels to¬ 
gether, and your toes turned out at an angle of 
about 45 degrees. You should rest your weight 
evenly on your feet so that you can stand easily 
without moving or swaying; have your legs straight 
but not stiff-kneed. Throw out your chest and 
draw in your chin, keeping your eyes straight to 
the front and your shoulders square. Your arms 
and hands should hang at your sides easily, with 
the thumb of each hand alongside the seam of your 
breeches, and the elbows near the body. 

You should practice this position at every chance 
you get, and it will soon become natural for you. 
As a matter of fact it is much easier to stand at 
attention than to stand crooked and round-shoul¬ 
dered with the weight shifted all onto one leg. 

3 7 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


About Giving Commands—And now we come 

to the place where commands must be given. You 
should always give your commands in a loud, clear, 
and confident voice, with special emphasis upon 
the last word of the command. In order to show 
the emphasis upon the last word the command 
will be printed in black-face type, the last word 
being in capitals. The first part of the command is 
merely preparatory; the last word is the command 
of execution. 

Bear in mind that no command can be given to a 
soldier unless he is first standing at attention, ex¬ 
cept the command attention itself which will bring 
him to that position. 

If you should desire to change your command be¬ 
fore it is executed, give the command as you zvere, 
when the soldier will remain in his original posi¬ 
tion. 

Right FACE—When this command is given 
(i) lift your left heel and right toe a little, and 
turning on your right heel by pressing with your 
left toe turn to the right as shown in Fig. 3. (2) 

Then bring your left foot to the side of your 
right. 

This is often done to the counts (1) and (2), 
which are given by the officer after the command 
right face is given, as shown by the numbers, for 

38 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 


it is easier to learn in this way. The two counts 
are given in the time it takes a grandfather’s clock 
to say tick-tock or one second, and when no counts 



Fig. 3. How Right Face is Done 

are given you should count to yourself as you do 
the movements. 

Left FACE—Is done in the same way except 
that (1) the turn is made on your left heel and 
(2) your right foot is brought to the side of your 
left foot. From now on instead of telling you 
how to do both right and left movements every 
time, I shall not tell about the left except when it 
is an extra hard one. 

Right (or Left) Half FACE—In this move you 
begin exactly as if you were going to do a right or 
left face, depending on whether the command given 
is right or left half face, except that you turn only 

39 











THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


45 degrees instead of 90 as in the right face; see 
Fig. 4. It is done to the counts (1) and (2). 


4 

FRONT 



Fig. 4. How Right (or Left) Half Face is Done 

About FACE' —The purpose of about face is to 
turn you around. (1) The toe of your right foot 
is placed about six inches back of your left heel 
and to the left of it a trifle. (2) You then swing 
on the toe of your right foot and your left heel un¬ 
til you are faced about as shown in Fig. 5. If exe¬ 
cuted correctly the heels will meet exactly and it 
will not be necessary to 'bring one foot up to the 
other. 

You are ready now to learn how to march. When 
starting to march always step off on the left foot. 

Forward MARCH —This command is given 
when you are standing still, or at the halt. (1) 
At the word forward shift the weight of your body 
on to your right leg, without, however, making any 
movement that can be seen, and (2) at the word 
march step off with the left foot with a pace of 30 
inches. Bear in mind that each step must be 30 
inches and that you should take 120 steps to the 

40 



THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 


minute. This is called quick time, and is what is 
known as the regulation step. 

Double Time MARCH — Double time march is 
done in the same way except that the step is 36 
inches long, and you take 180 steps a minute. To 



A. What the Movement Means 

B. Before the About Face 

C. After the About Face 

do this it is necessary for you to break into an easy 
trot, with your forearms horizontal to the ground, 
elbows bent and close to the sides like those of a 
runner, and the hands closed. 

Quick Time MARCH—This command will be 
given when you are marching at double time, and 
means to slow down to quick time. Do not do this 

4i 





THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


immediately on the word march but take one more 
step in double time, and then slow down to quick 
time on your next. Thus (i) take one more step 
at double time, (2) slow down to quick time and 
drop the arms to the sides. 

Mark Time MARCH—This consists of raising 
and lowering each foot one after the other, about 
two inches from the ground, 120 times a minute, 
but without moving from the spot you are standing 
on. If given while on the march take one more 
step, bring the other foot up even and then do as 
explained above. 

Half Step MARCH—The half step is 15 inches 
in quick and 18 inches in double time. If the com¬ 
mand forward march is then given break into the 
quick-time 30-inch step, taking one more 15-inch 
step after the word march, before doing so. 

Right (or Left) Step MARCH—This is a side 
step. (1) The right or left foot is carried 15 
inches to the right or left 120 times to the minute 
and (2) the other foot is brought up alongside 
the right or left foot before making another side 
step. In this movement the command halt is given 
as the feet are brought together; one more step is 
taken and then the heels are again brought together 
at a halt. 

Backward MARCH— Backward march is done 
by taking 15-inch steps to the rear. 

42 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 


By the Right (or Left) Flank MARCH—At 

the command march, given as the right foot 
strikes the ground, advance and plant the left foot; 
then face to the right in marching and step off in the 
new direction with the right foot. 

To the Rear MARCH—At the command march, 
given as the right foot strikes the ground, take one 
more step with the left foot; turn to the right about 
on the balls of both feet, and at once step off with 
the left foot. 

Change Step MARCH —At the word march 
(i) bring the right foot to the heel of the left foot 
and (2) step off with the left foot. (The change 
step with the other foot is done similarly.) 

HALT—This command means to stop. When 
you hear the word halt (1) take one more step 
and (2) bring your other foot to the first and stop. 

There are a few other commands that are given 
to a soldier only when he is halted and standing 
at attention and these are: 

REST—You must keep one foot in place but 
you can talk and need not stand at attention. 

At EASE—This is the same as rest, only you 
can’t talk. 

Parade REST—(1) Carry your right foot back 
six inches and hold the leg rigid. (2) Hold your 
left hand by the thumb with your right hand and 
in the center of the body, the arms hanging easily, 

43 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


and the fingers of the left hand being pressed to¬ 
gether and over those of the right. The left knee 
should be slightly bent as shown in Fig. 6. 



Fig. 6. How the Hands are Held at Parade Rest 

Eyes RIGHT (or LEFT)—Turn your head 
45 degrees from the front, the eyes turning with 
the head. 

The last thing of all is the hand salute. This 
is a military honor and when you do it you should 
put all of the pep into it you can, for if you don’t 
it is no longer an honor but an abomination. The 
command given is 


44 








THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 

Hand SALUTE—You should raise your right 
arm and hand with the thumb and four fingers 
stiffly extended and joined until the fore finger 
touches the brim of your hat, directly over your 
right eye, the forearm being at 45 degrees with 
the ground and the outside of the hand slanted 
toward the ground slightly. You must always look 



Fig. 7. The Correct Hand Salute 

directly at the person you salute. The correct 
salute is shown in Fig. 7. 

How to Practice These Drills—These drills are 
known as the School of the Soldier and are as 
necessary to every soldier as his rifle, for upon 
them depend the manner in which he will move 
when in a squad, and the ease and skill with which 
the squad, platoon, or company can be maneuvered; 
hence you should practice all these movements until 

45 






THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


you can do them perfectly. There are two ways 
that you can do this. The first is to stand at at¬ 
tention, give the command to yourself, and then 
carry it out. The second is to get some one else 
to give the commands until you are able to execute 
them well. You should then practice on him, for 
in this way you will get a little training in com¬ 
manding. Whichever way you do it, it is well to 
do the movements slowly at first, and then as you 
begin to know them better you can speed up until 
you are doing them faster. You should take par¬ 
ticular pains, as you are doing them, to see that you 
get every little movement exactly right, or you will 
fall into the easy habit of doing them wrong. 

You will find at first that counting aloud as you 
go through the movements will help you learn them. 
But after you know them you should not count ex¬ 
cept perhaps to yourself and silently, nor should you 
count aloud if you are drilling men who know the 
movements fairly well, for they will begin to depend 
too much on you. As soon as a soldier starts to de¬ 
pend upon his officer to count he begins to lose the 
spirit of alertness that every well-trained man must 
have, and by and by his drilling will become bad in¬ 
stead of good. 

On the other hand, when ‘drilling a man, if you 
see that he really does not understand what you 
mean, go through the movement before him slowly 

46 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 


and explain to him as you go along just what 
you are doing and why. Always insist that he be 
attentive and up on his toes } for in this way he 
will learn very quickly and save you much bother. 


47 


CHAPTER V 


\ 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SQUAD 

% 

Having learned the school of the soldier so that 
you can give and execute the right commands, you 
are ready to learn about the squad. 

What a Squad Is—The squad is made up of 
eight soldiers who are lined up in what is known 
as ranks. A rank is a number of soldiers drawn 
up side by side or abreast. In the squad there are 
two ranks, namely (i) the front rank and (2) the 
rear rank. There are four men in each rank, and 
every front and corresponding rear rank man is 
called a file. The men are numbered from right to 
left (making it left to right as the officer sees them) 
thus: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 of the front 
rank; No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 of the rear 
rank. 

The squad is made up of seven privates and a 
corporal, and the latter stands in No. 4 file of 
the front rank. I will tell you about the duties of 
the corporal a little further on, so for the present 
we will simply consider him as a common soldier. 

The Value of Drill—Now the object of all drill 

48 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SQUAD 

is not only to train soldiers to act together as a 
unit and smoothly but to drill obedience into them. 
This is why an officer is very strict, and wants to 
have his commands obeyed quickly and to the letter. 
Months of drilling in the right way will get a soldier 
so into the habit of obeying that, when he is under 
fire he will do only what he is commanded to do and 
very promptly at that. As a matter of fact squad 
and company formation is very seldom used on the 
battlefield, especially if the men are under infantry 
fire, for they would be so close together that they 
would simply be mowed down. Instead the com¬ 
mand to deploy, that is, spread out into open for¬ 
mation, is given so that there is not so much chance 
of casualty from shell or rifle-fire. 

But notwithstanding this fact, the value of drill 
is so great that even when soldiers are relieved 
from the trenches and sent to rest billets, or sta¬ 
tions, they are drilled six hours a day. So as a 
soldier of a squad you should do your part the 
best you know how, and as an officer you should 
see that your squad does its best. 

Here again the appearance of the soldier in re¬ 
gard to dress should be as neat as possible. Since 
the squad is the smallest formation of soldiers 
which acts as a unit, you should keep the same men 
in the same squad, for in this way they get so that 
they feel at ease, and want their squad to be the 

49 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


best, and will go out of their way to make it so. 
One of the worst things you can do is to change 
the men about into different squads every time you 
drill, for they soon see that they belong to no par¬ 
ticular squad and don’t care very much how they 
drill or how the squad that they are in at the time 
looks. 

On Forming a Squad—The first thing you must 
do is to pick out eight men for your squad and 
you must then explain to them what a squad is 
and what it is for. Inasmuch as you will have 
to show each man in the squad just what to do 
when you give your commands you must know 
the movements of each man beyond the shadow 
of a doubt, and before attempting to teach a squad 
you should have all of the movements clearly in 
mind. In some of the squad movements Nos. I, 2, 
3, and 4, of the front and rear ranks have different 
things to do, and when this happens I will tell you 
just what each man does. 

How to Drill a Squad—Before a command can 
be given, the men must be gathered in squad forma¬ 
tion. If you are the officer teaching them you must 
stand three paces, seven and a half feet, to the 
front, in the center and facing the place where you 
want the squad to form, and give the command 

Fall IN—The men will then line up in two 
ranks of four men each. The tallest men should be 

50 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SQUAD 


on the right end of the ranks—or right flank as 
it is called—and the shortest men on the left flank. 
The ranks should be straight and parallel, and 
there should be 40 inches distance between the rear 
and front rank, each rear rank man being directly 
behind or covering the man in the rank in front of 
him. The proper formation of a squad is shown 
in Fig. 8, which is drawn looking down upon the 


left flank 




SERGEANT 
FACING MEN 


Fig. 8. How to Form a Squad 


squad, as if you were directly overhead in a bal¬ 
loon. 

The men should be at attention when they fall 
in and must not change this position until you 
give the command fall out, at ease, rest, or parade 
rest, all of which were told about in the last chap¬ 
ter. 

Count OFF —(1) When this command is given 
every man at the word off, except the first man in 
the front and rear ranks on the right flank, turns 

51 





THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


his head to the position of eyes right, and (2) im¬ 
mediately, starting with the first man on the right 
flank of each rank who will count one, the man next 
to him will count two and turn his head and eyes to 
the front; as soon as No. 2 has said two, No. 3 will 
count three and do eyes front, and so on. The 
men in the rear rank do the same, each man count¬ 
ing off at the same time that the man in front of him 
does. 

As soon as the squad has counted off you will 
give the command 

Right (or Left) DRESS—At the command dress 
every man places his left hand on his hip, and every 
one except the right flank man does eyes right (or 
left as the command may be). The hand should be 
placed with the fingers extended, tightly joined to¬ 
gether and pointing directly downward. The whole 
arm should be on a line with the body and the shoul¬ 
ders square, as shown in Fig. 9. The man on the 
extreme right (No. 1), is the right guide. He re¬ 
mains stationary, resisting all pressure from his 
left. The other men close up to the right or give 
way to the left, taking steps of three inches as 
needed. Each left elbow must just touch the right 
arm of the next man. All rear rank men, acting in 
the same manner, cover their front rank men. The 
men will then be evenly spaced, will not be crowded 

52 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SQUAD 



Fig. 9. How Right Dress is Done 




53 


















THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


in ranks, and the ranks should be as straight as a 
ruler. 

When you want to bring the squad back to the 
position of attention you will give the command 

FRONT—At this command the left arm is 
dropped to the side, heads and eyes are turned to 
the front, and the squad is ready to receive fur¬ 
ther commands. The officer commanding the squad 
will look down the ranks from the right flank 
to see that they are straight and that every man 
covers the man in front of him, or his file leader, as 
he is called. If a man is out of place he orders him 
to move forward, or back, to the right, or left, until 
he covers his file leader. 

The commands forward march, to the rear 
march, backward march, right step march, and 
half step march, when executed by a squad are car¬ 
ried out by each soldier as explained in the school of 
the soldier. 

Right (or Left) Oblique MARCH—At the 

word march each man half faces to the right in 
marching, and steps off in the new direction. 

The middle of the neck of the man in front of 
you should be kept on a line with the middle of 
your neck, or otherwise the ranks will not be 
straight—see Fig. io. When you want to go for¬ 
ward again give the command forward march. At 

54 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SQUAD 

march each man half faces to the left (or right) in 
marching and moves to the front. If the command 
halt is given while marching oblique the men (i) 
face forward and (2) then halt. 



Fig. 10. Squad Marching Right Oblique 


The next thing you should be able to do is to 
turn a squad from the forward march to the right 
or left. The command is 

Squad Right MARCH —At the word march, 
the man on the right flank of the front rank, 
—No. 1 front rank—faces to the right as in march¬ 
ing and marks time in place. Nos. 2, 3 and 4 of the 
front rank then do a right oblique and march 
obliquely until they come abreast or alongside of 
No, 1, who is still marking time and who is called 

55 




THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


the pivot man because the others all swing around 
him as a wheel does on a pivot. 

In the rear rank at the word march No. 3 marches 
straight ahead (or to the front) until directly back 
of No. 3 in the front rank. Nos. 2 and 1 of the rear 
rank face to the left at the same time that No. 3 


ORIGINAL 
POSITIONS 
OF SQUAD 



Fig. 11. How Squad Right is Done 


starts to march to the front, and follow him until 
they come directly back of their file leaders. No. 4 
rear rank, starting off with No. 3, moves four paces 
to the front, faces to the right, and places himself 
abreast No. 3, when the movement is completed. 
As soon as No. 4 of the rear rank is in place as 
shown in Fig. 11, the whole squad moves off with¬ 
out command to the front. If, however, the com¬ 
mand squad right march is followed by the word 

56 










THE SCHOOL OF THE SQUAD 


squad thus, squad right march — squad, then when 
No. 4 is in place the whole squad marks time and 
awaits the next command, which is usually halt . 

As this movement requires considerable practice 
it is best to have the front rank and the rear rank of 
the squad make the movements separately. Fur¬ 
thermore, you should have the men change places so 
that no matter what numbers they are in they know 
what to do. 

It is important that the pivot man mark time ex¬ 
actly in place, or else the 40 inches distance between 
ranks will not be maintained. This movement of 
the squad is known as turning on a fixed pivot. 

Squad Left MARCH —This is done exactly the 
same as squad right except that in this case the pivot 
man is No. 4 of the front rank, who faces to the 
left as in marching and marks time in place, when 
Nos. 3, 2, and 1 of the front rank march obliquely 
to the left until they come abreast of No. 4. 

In the rear rank No. 2 man marches straight to 
the front until directly behind his file leader. Nos. 
3 and 4 of the rear rank then face to the right at 
the same time that No. 2 starts to march to the 
front and follow him until directly back of their 
file leaders. No. 1 of the rear rank moves four 
paces to the front and places himself abreast of No. 
2, when all move off without command. 

57 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 

When you want to turn a squad in the opposite 
direction, you give the following command : 

Squad Right (or Left) About MARCH—This 
is the same as two squad rights (or lefts). As soon 
as the squad has done one squad right, the pivot 
man again faces to the right and the squad executes 
another squad right, and when this is done, and the 
last man is in place in the ranks, it marches to the 
front. Squad left about march is done in the same 
way, the squad doing tzvo squad lefts and marching 
off. 

When you want to turn the squad on what is 
known as a moving pivot you will command 

Right (or Left) Turn MARCH—When the 
front rank has completed this movement the rear 
rank executes the same movement, using the same 
ground that the front rank started on. At the 
command march the pivot man of the front rank 
faces to the right (or left) as in marching and steps 
off at the half step. The rest of the front rank does 
a right oblique and moves off at the full step until 
it comes opposite its place in line and then does an¬ 
other right oblique, bringing it abreast the pivot 
man, when it moves off at the half step. The pivot 
man glances toward the marching flank (No. 4, rear 
rank) and all take the full step without command as 
soon as he arrives on the line. 

The rear rank executes the movement in orecisely 

58 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SQUAD 

the same manner, first marching forward to the 
same ground on which the front rank has turned. 

In executing this command it is the pivot man 
that makes or mars it. If he does not move off 
straight to the front at half step after facing to the 
right the whole movement is spoiled. A common 
fault of the rear rank pivot man is not to wait for 
the front rank pivot man to move off after facing 
to the right, but to push him off. This causes the 
front rank man to move off crooked, and as a re¬ 
sult the whole rank looks like a rail fence. 

Open Ranks MARCH —At this command the 
rear rank does a backward march for four steps 
of 15 inches each and halts. At the command 
Close Ranks MARCH —The rear rank takes two 
steps of 30 inches forward and halts, when it 
should again be 40 inches from the front rank. 

Take Interval to the Right (or Left) MARCH 
—(1) At the words take interval to the right the 
rear rank does an open ranks and then 

(2) At the word march both ranks face to the 
right and the first man in each rank steps off. The 
next man of each rank waits until the front rank 
man has stepped off 4 paces and then follows, and 
so on through the rank. The command halt is 
given so that all men are spaced 4 paces apart. The 
squad then faces front without command. 

59 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


When you want to re-form the men in squad 
formation from this position give the command 
Assemble to the Right (or Left) MARCH —At 
this command the front rank man on the right 
flank does not move, but the rear rank right flank 
man takes two paces forward and this brings him 
40 inches behind the front rank right flank man. 
The other men in the front and rear ranks close in 
by the shortest route, when they face to the front, 
and this brings them in squad formation. 

After having your squad count off you should 
have it take distance; the command is 

Take Distance MARCH —When the word 
march is given, No. 1 of the front rank moves 
straight to the front; Nos. 2, 3, and 4 of the front 
rank and Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the rear rank, in the 
order named, move straight to the front, each step¬ 
ping off so as to follow the preceding man at 4 
paces. The command halt is given when all have 
their distances. The squad is then as shown in 
Fig. 12. 

To re-form the squad the command 
Assemble MARCH —is given. No. 1 of the 
front rank does not move, and the other members 
of the front and rear rank move to the front until 
the squad is re-formed; that is, with rear rank 40 
inches from the front. 


60 


THE SCHOOL OF THE SQUAD 


I told you before about deploying a squad but 
not how to do it. To deploy a squad so that it 




Fig. 12. How the Squad Takes Distance 


can be safely used to charge, as in a light en¬ 
counter, the command is 

As Skirmishers MARCH —No. 4 man of the 
front rank, who is the Corporal, will place himself 
in front of the squad, moving at double time. The * 
front rank men will then place themselves abreast 

61 




THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


the Corporal at half-pace intervals, Nos i and 2 on 
his right and No. 3 on his left. The rear rank men 


CORPORAL 



Fig. 13. How the Squad is Deployed as Skirmishers 

will then place themselves on the right of their file 
leaders, as shown in Fig. 13. 


62 


CHAPTER VI 


THE SCHOOL OF THE COMPANY 

The next largest unit after the squad which 
must be drilled is the platoon. A platoon is made 
up of two, three, or four squads of eight men 
each, and its purpose is to group the soldiers to¬ 
gether so that they will move as well as they did 
in the squad. However, the company, which is 
made up of two, three or four platoons, is the most 
important thing for you to consider, being, as it is, 
the smallest unit in which an officer handles his men 
directly. 

As a matter of fact, you will very likely never 
have more men under you to drill than enough to 
form a platoon, but since the platoon and com¬ 
pany movements are done in the same way I shall 
tell you about the company movements, or school 
of the company , as it is called, and then you will 
know how both a company and platoon work. 

Company Movements Are Similar to Squad 
Movements —The first thought that you should fix 
in your mind is that the majority of platoon and 

63 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


company movements are not different from the 
squad movements, and that those that are different 
use the same squad movements that you have al¬ 
ready learned. Hence you can readily see that if 
your squads have learned the school of the squad 
well they will not have the slightest trouble in 
doing company movements under your able di¬ 
rection. 

In company movements the squad movements 
are done by each squad upon the command. Thus 
when the command squads right march is given by 
the captain of a company each squad does a squad 
right. The men are commanded to fall in, count off, 
right dress, rest, parade rest, etc., as described be¬ 
fore for you in the school of the soldier and the 
school of the squad, as well as any of the other 
commands given there. 

The Officers of the Company and Their Duties 

—But before going into the movements that the 
company executes and which are different from 
some of the squad movements, you must know 
about the captain, lieutenants, sergeants, and cor¬ 
porals, of a company, and their duties. 

The captain is in charge of the company. It is 
his duty to look after his men, that is to say, he 
must see that they are properly fed, clothed, armed, 
and trained. To aid him in this work he has his 
lieutenants, whose place it is to see that the non- 

64 


THE SCHOOL OF THE COMPANY 

commissioned officers that the captain appoints are 
properly trained. The lieutenants rank as first or 
second and command platoons. The first lieutenant 
commands the right platoon and the second lieu¬ 
tenant commands the left platoon on the end of the 
company. 

The non-commissioned officers are the sergeants 
and corporals. The sergeants see that the platoons 
that they command and the corporals of the squads 


Fig. 14. Insignia of Non-Commissioned Officers 

execute the captain’s commands right. The ser¬ 
geants of a four-platoon company usually com¬ 
mand the right center and left center platoons. 

The corporals, each of whom commands a squad, 
see that the men in their squads do the move¬ 
ments properly, and to do this the corporal has 
certain commands which he gives his squad and 
which make it easier for it to carry out the cap¬ 
tain’s command. It must be plain, then, that the 
corporal of a squad must know the school of the 
soldier, squad, and company perfectly if he is to do 
his work right. The corporal stands in No. 4 file of 
the front rank of his squad. Whenever, for any 

65 


SERGEANT CORPORAL 






THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


reason, the corporal leaves his squad No. 4 of the 
rear rank steps into his place until he returns, and 
No. 4 file of the rear rank is left empty or blank 
as it is called. The insignia of sergeants and cor¬ 
porals are shown in Fig. 14, and are worn on the 
sleeve above the elbow. 

How the Company Is Formed —The first thing 
that you must do if you are a captain is to have 
your company formed. This is the first sergeant’s 
job and he will stand 6 paces to the front and in 
the center of the place where the captain wants the 
company to be formed. He will then give the 
command 

Fall IN —At this command the right guide of 
the company faces the sergeant and places himself 
in such a position that when the company has 
formed abreast of him to the left, the center will 
be opposite the sergeant and 6 paces from him, as 
shown in Fig. 15. The purpose of the guide is, 
as the name indicates, to guide the company; that 
is to say, the ranks sight or guide on the guide in 
order to keep straight. When marching, the men 
in the front ranks glance occasionally toward the 
guide and in this way the ranks are kept straight. 
When the company is in a column of squads, the 
guide’s place is in front of, or at the head of, the 
column. The guide is usually a non-commissioned 
officer. 


66 


/ ST SQUAD 2 ND SQUAD 3 rd SQUAD A™ SQUAD 5 th SQUAD 6 th SQUAD 


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THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Returning to the formation of the company: the 
men fall in in squads, abreast the right guide and 
to his left. When they have fallen in, the ser¬ 
geant says report and the corporals of the squads 
one after the other from right to left salute, and 
report all present, or private or privates so-and-so 
absent. The sergeant then does an about face and 
faces the captain, salutes, and reports either Sir, 
all present or accounted for, or the names of those 
absent as reported by the corporals. The sergeant 
then takes his place at the head of his platoon. 

The company is dismissed when the command 
dismissed is given by the first sergeant, after the 
captain has commanded him to dismiss the com¬ 
pany. The sergeant steps 3 paces to the front of 
and 2 paces from the nearest end of the company 
or flank that he happens to be on, salutes the cap¬ 
tain, and then gives the above command, when 
the men fall out. 

The company is aligned, that is, the ranks are 
straightened by the command right dress as 
described before in the school of the squad. Be¬ 
fore executing any movement the command count 
off is given, so that every man in the squads will 
know his number and what to do when further com¬ 
mands are given. When the command right dress 
has been given the captain will look down the ranks 
from the right flank to make sure that they are 

68 


THE SCHOOL OF THE COMPANY 

straight, and after making any necessary corrections 
he will give the command front. 

The Movements of the Company. —And now we 
come to the movements of the company. You 
should not keep the men standing at attention when 
they are not executing movements, but should give 
the command rest, at ease, or fall out. 

Fall oat means that the men may break ranks but 
must remain somewhere near. The following com¬ 
mands are carried out from either a halt, or while 
on the march. The first thing that you should know 
is how to turn the company on a fixed pivot. The 
command is 

Company Right (or Left) MARCH —At the 

word march the front rank right flank man, who is 
the pivot, faces to the right in marching and marks 
time in place. The rest of the men in the front 
rank oblique to the right and march until they are 
abreast the pivot man, when they mark time. In the 
rear rank the third man from the right, followed in 
column by the second and first, moves straight to the 
front until in rear of his first-rank man, when all 
three face to the right in marching and mark time. 
The remaining men of the rear rank move straight 
to the front 4 paces, oblique to the right, place them¬ 
selves abreast of the third man, cover their file 
leaders, and mark time. The right guide steps back 

69 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 

and to the right, which places him at his post 
on the right flank of the front rank, and marks 
time. 

This completes the movement which is shown in 
Fig. 16. If you want to halt the company or ad¬ 
vance it, you will give either one of the commands 



company halt, or forward march, just as the last 
man of the rear rank is one pace from being in 
place. 

The next thing you should know is how to change 
your line formation into column formation. That 
is to say, either platoons or squads are lined up 
one behind the other instead of one beside the 

70 













§ 


Z ND SQUAD 


1st SQUAD 


O O O O O -O* PIVOTMAN 


1ST PLATOON | 

O O- O' O' *0 O' o o 
4 TH SQUAD 3* ° SQUAD 


Z NO PLATOON 


I 


♦ O O O •#- O O 0*PI VOTMAN 

oooooooo 

—PIVOT MAN 


COMPANY MARCHES IN 
UN E FORMA?7/ON /N 

THIS DIRECTION BEFORE 
MOVEMENT IS DONE 


PIVOT MAN 


REAR RAN/C 


FRONT RANK 


Fig. i7. Company in Column of Platoons After 
Doing Platoons Right 










THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


other as they are when in line formation. To form 
columns of platoons the command is 

Platoons Right (or Left) MARCH—This com¬ 
mand is done by each platoon and is executed the 
same as company right (or left) march. That is to- 
say, at the word march the pivot man of each 
platoon—who is the right flank front rank man— 
faces to the right in marching and marks time. The 
rest of the front rank of each platoon oblique to the 
right and march until abreast their pivot man, when 
they mark time. 

In the rear rank of each platoon, No. 3, followed 
in column by Nos. 2 and 1, marches straight to the 
front; when directly in the rear of their file leaders 
they face to the right and mark time. No. 4 and the 
rest of the rear rank of each platoon march four 
paces to the front, oblique to the right, and march 
until abreast their No. 3, when they face to front 
and mark time. This brings the company into 
column formation of platoons as shown in Fig. 17. 
You will notice that the column is one platoon 
wide. 

If you want to have your column still narrower, 
you will change your company from line formation 
to column of squads formation by the command 
Squads Right (or Left) MARCH—This is done 
by each squad just as described in the school of 
the squad, and will bring your company into 

72. 


/st. SQUAD 


2 NO SQUAD 


3 KO -SQUAD 


4-th. SQUAD 


0 > 


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► OO O* PIVOT MAN 

k>ooo 

S%-000*P/VOTMAN 

loooo 

r«- O O O* PI VOT MAN 
0-000 
jfOO O~p/VOT MAN 

oooo 


COMPANY MARCHES 
IN TH/ S DIRECTION 

BEFORE MOVE IS 
DONE IN LINE 
FORMATION 



PIVOT MEN 


REAR RANK 

FRONTRANK 

Fig. i8. Company in Column of Squads or Fours After 

Doing Squads Right 

73 






THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


columns four men wide, or column of fours as it 
is called, as shown in Fig. 18. To bring the com¬ 
pany into column of tzvos you have only to give 
the command right (or left) face, and you will 
have a column two men wide, instead of a com¬ 
pany in line formation. 

Next come the movements that are made on a 
moving pivot, and the object of which is to change 
the direction of the company. The first command 
is 

Right (or Left) Turn MARCH—This is done 

the same as squad right (or left) turn march , ex¬ 
cept that it is done by the whole company instead 
of a single squad. Furthermore, the right guide, 
and not the right flank man of the front rank, is 
the pivot man. It is shown in Fig. 19. 

To change the direction of a column of platoons 
give the following command: 

Column Right (or Left) MARCH—At the 
words column right the leader of the first platoon 
of the column, or leading platoon, will command 
his platoon to right turn. When the word march 
is heard the first platoon will do a right turn as 
just told above, using the moving pivot. When 
the last man of the first platoon is in place its 
leader will give the command fonvard march, when 
it will move to the front. The other platoons will 
march to the point upon which the first platoon 

74 


—>* 



75 


aX&AAZOJ 























THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 

turned and will turn and march forward upon the 
commands right turn and forward march, the first 
of which is given by their leaders just as they 



Fig. 20. How a Column of Platoons Does 
Column Right 

reach the point where they are to turn, as shown 
in Fig. 20. 

If you are in column of squads and give the 

76 




THE SCHOOL OF THE COMPANY 

command column right (or left) march, at the word 
march the front rank of the first squad does a 
right turn on the moving pivot and marches on; 
the following ranks do the same when they reach 
the turning point, and this changes the direction 
of the column. 

When you are in column of squads and want to 
re-form the company in line of platoons you should 
give the command 

Platoons Column Right (or Left) MARCH— 

At the word march each platoon will do a column 
right. 

There is one other movement executed with the 
moving pivot that you should know about, and this 
is how to change a line formation to column of 
squads and then change the direction of the column. 
The command is 

Squads Right (or Left), Column Right (or 
Left) MARCH —When this command is given the 
right flank squad of the line will do a squad right, 
and as soon as the last man is in place it will do a 
column right, and the following squads will do the 
same. 

The next thing you should know is how to 
change a column back to a line formation to the 
right or left. To change a column of squads or 
platoons back into line the command is 

On Right (or Left) into Line MARCH—When 

77 


LINE COMPANY JS TO BE 


s 

I 

I 

O O 

oo 

oo 

m-o- 


oo 

oo 

oo 

#-0- 


oo 

oo 

oo 

•-e- 


oo 

oo 

oo 

•-©- 



i 


o o o o 
oooo 
O O O O 0 

oooo 
o o o o o 
oooo 
o o o o o 
oooo 

M 



HDZt/tA 


O&tfM&OJ 


HDdbYUJ 


awM'doJ 


HDdtfU/ 


avt/Mvoj 


HDdt/N 


OdEMVOd 



v pi 


78 


Fig. 21. How On Right into Line is Done 













THE SCHOOL OF THE COMPANY 


the first four words of this command are given, 
the leader of the first or leading platoon, or the 
corporal of the first or leading squad, depending on 
whether you have a column of platoons or squads, 
will command right turn , the leaders or corporals 
of the following platoons or squads giving at the 
same time the command forward, if at a halt, or 
continue the march, if marching. At the captain’s 
word march the first platoon or squad does a right 
turn and moves forward until on the line where the 
company is to be formed, when the command halt 
is given by the captain. The corporal or leader 
then commands right dress. 

The following platoons or squads march straight 
to the front until opposite their places in line, when 
the leader or corporal gives the command right 
turn. They then march until abreast the preced¬ 
ing squad, when they are halted on the line by their 
leader or corporal and commanded to right dress. 
The captain then commands front and the move is 
completed—see Fig. 21. 

If you want to form your new line directly in 
front of the column, you will give the command 

Right (or Left) Front into Line MARCH—At 
the words right front into line the platoon leader or 
squad corporal of the first or leading platoon or 
squad will command forward if at a halt, or con - 
tinue the march if marching. The following pla- 

79 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 

toon leaders or squad corporals will command right 
oblique. At the word march the first platoon or 


LINE COMP/^N Y IS TO BE FORMED ON 



Fig. 22. How Right Front into Line is Done by 
a Column of Squads 


squad will march straight to the front, the rear or 
following platoons or squads doing a right oblique, 

80 










THE SCHOOL OF THE COMPANY 


when the captain will give the command halt just 
as the first squad or platoon reaches the line the 
company is to be formed on. The platoon leader 
or corporal then gives the command left dress. 

The following platoons or squads will march at 
the right oblique until opposite their place in line, 
when the platoon leaders or corporals will give the 
command forzvard march and they will march into 
line abreast the first platoon or squad, being halted 
by their leaders. The platoon leaders or corporals 
will then give the command left dress, and when 
the company is in line, the captain will command 
front —all of which is clearly shown in Fig. 22. 

When you want to march your company to the 
rear, whether it is in line or column, you can do it 
in any one of the following ways: (1) if at a halt, 
give the command about face, forzvard march; (2) 
if marching, to the rear march; (3) if either at a 
halt or marching, squads right (or left ) about 
march. The guide will in any case place himself on 
the rear rank, which has now been turned into the 
front rank. 

As I have already told you in the school of the 
squad, the squad is deployed when engaged in 
actual battle, and this holds good for the company 
as well. The command to deploy when marching 
in line is 

As Skirmishers Guide Right (or Left, or Cen- 

81 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


ter) MARCH—The words guide right, or left, or 
center mean that the skirmish line is to be formed 
upon either the right flank squad, left flank squad, 
or center squad. This squad is known as the 
base squad. 

At the words as skirmishers guide right (or left, 
or center) the corporal of the base squad commands 
his men follow me and steps quickly in front of No. 
2 front rank of his squad. At the word march the 
base squad moves straight to the front and as soon 
as it has room enough the corporal gives the com¬ 
mand as skirmishers. When it has reached the line 
where the captain intends the skirmish line to be, he 
gives the command halt. 

At the word march the other corporals step to 
the front of their squads, and if the command 
given by the captain was guide right, they move 
toward the left front; if the command was guide 
left, they move toward the right front; if, how¬ 
ever, the guide was center, those on the right of the 
base squad move to the right front, and those on the 
left to the left front. They deploy upon their cor¬ 
poral’s command as skirmishers march, taking their 
proper places one after the other on the skirmish 
line, when the movement is completed, as shown in 
Fig. 23. 

If the company is in column of squads the com¬ 
mand to deploy is the same except that if the guide 

82 


2"° 3*° AND 4 T " SQUADS DEPLOY 

AS THEY PEACH THE SKIRMISH LINE 
- -■*--\ 


A TH SQUAD 3 Ka SQUAD Z"° SQUAD ! sr SQUAD 

DEPLOYED DEPLOYED DEPLOYED DEPLOYED 



Fig. 23 . Company Deploying as Skirmishers Using 
First Squad as Base Squad 

83 






THE SCHOOL OF THE COMPANY 


is center, squads in front of the base squad move 
to the right, while those in the rear move to the 
left. If the company is at the halt and the com¬ 
mand to deploy as skirmishers is given, the base 
squad deploys at once where it stands, and the other 
squads form a skirmish line upon it. 

To re-form the company in double rank, the cap¬ 
tain will stand in front of the squad he wants it to 
form on and give the command. 

Assemble MARCH —At the word march the 
men will move promptly to a point picked out by the 
captain and re-form the company as it was at first. 

In Chapter XIII you will find many hints on 
marching and tactics employed in actual warfare in 
France; but these are not given here because, as I 
explained before, the purpose of these drills is to 
train the men to obedience and system, and, except 
for a few, they are used only when the company 
is on parade. 


84 


CHAPTER VII 


THE MANUAL OF ARMS 

Now that you know how the movements of the 
soldier, of his squad, and of his company are 
done you are ready to learn about one of the most 
important parts of his equipment—and that is his 
rifle. Now, there are certain drills or movements 
that a soldier must be able to do with his rifle 
when marching, or at the halt, which I did not tell 
you about before because it would have complicated 
things. But now you should learn them and use 
them in your drills. 

The Regulation Army Piece —The first thing 
that you should know about, before you learn the 
rifle drills, is your rifle. And right here I want 
to say that you must never call your rifle a gun. 
In England it is called a rifle; in the United States 
a piece; but nowhere is it ever called a gun. 

The piece now in use in the United States Army 
is known as the United States Magazine Rifle, 
Model 1903. It is .30 caliber, shoots 5 shots with¬ 
out reloading and weighs 8.69 pounds without its 

85 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


bayonet, which weighs a pound without its scab¬ 
bard or sheath. The length of the piece is 43 inches 
and the length of the bayonet is 20 inches, making 
the length of the piece with bayonet attached 5'3" 
altogether. 

Different from the sporting rifles which are 
either lever or pump action, the army piece is what 
is known as a bolt action. That is to say, instead 



(How the Bolt is Worked) 

of being loaded by means of pulling a finger lever 
down, or a slide handle back, the piece is loaded 
by means of lifting a bolt-shaped arrangement and 
pulling it straight back toward you, as shown in 
Fig. 24. 

How the Piece Is Loaded and Fired —The in¬ 
terior mechanism and names of the parts of the 
piece are shown in Figs. 24, 25 and 26. Now if you 
will look at 25, which is a cross-section of the piece, 

86 





















THE MANUAL OF ARMS 


you will observe what is known as the cocking- 
piece, and this serves the same purpose that the 
hammer does on a sporting rifle. You will also 
see that the cocking-piece and the trigger are con¬ 
nected by a sear, and that the mainspring which 
operates the cocking-piece or hammer, is a coiled 
spring. The action of the gun is like this: first 
you put a clip containing 5 cartridges into the 
magazine; you then pull back the cocking-piece or 
lift the bolt handle and pull back the bolt, which in 
either case pushes back the cocking-piece, and the 
rifle is then cocked. While you are doing this the 
magazine spring in the magazine has pushed a car¬ 
tridge up out of the clip and carried it into the 
firing-chamber of the barrel, and this completes the 
loading movement and makes the piece ready to fire. 

You then close the bolt, take aim, and pull the 
trigger. The trigger causes the sear—which up to 
this time has held the cocking-piece cocked—to re¬ 
lease the cocking-piece and the powerful coiled 
mainspring then drives it against the firing-pin, 
which strikes the cartridge and explodes it. 

You now wish to get rid of, or eject, the ex¬ 
ploded cartridge and to put or load a new one into 
the firing chamber. This you can do by drawing 
back the bolt again. As soon as you draw the bolt 
back a device called an ejector pulls the cartridge 
well out of the firing-chamber, and you can re- 

87 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


move it from the piece with your fingers. At the 
same time the magazine spring forces another 
cartridge up and when you close the bolt again it 
forces the cartridge into the firing-chamber, when 
the piece is again ready to be fired. 

The cartridges are provided with a bullet made 
of an alloy of nickel and tin which has a jacket 
or outer covering of an alloy of copper and nickel, 
or a cupro nickel jacket, as it is called. When a 
'cartridge of this kind is shot from the piece, as it 
leaves the barrel it travels at the rate of 2,700 feet 
per second, or over half a mile per second. The 
piece shoots accurately up to 2,850 yards or a little 
over a mile and a half, but will shoot nearly three 
miles, the bullet covering this distance in 38 seconds. 

The Important Parts of the Piece —The rifle 
consists of the following important parts which you 
must know the name of when handling it, and these 
are (1) the barrel with its front and rear sight. 
(2) the wooden forearm, (3) the bolt and cocking- 
piece, and (4) the wooden stock, the end of which 
is the butt and is fitted with a butt plate, the 
bottom of the butt plate being called the toe and 
the top the heel. The stock narrows down where 
it is joined to the barrel and firing mechanism, and 
this part is known as the small of the stock. The 
rear sight is usually placed at the point where the 

88 


.BOLT. DAftfiCL . MOVABLE,BAS£. 



89 


Fig. 26. U. S. Magazine Rifle. Top View 
























































































































































THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


piece will just balance if you rest it on your finger 
there. Consequently this point where the rear 
sight is placed is known as the balance of the piece. 

Having now a pretty good idea of what the 
military rifle is like, you can he trusted with one 
if you will remember just two things, and these 
are (i) not to point it at any one or any thing that 
you do not want to kill or shoot at, whether the 
piece is loaded or not, or whether you think it 
is or not, and (2) that the rifle is a very delicate 
piece of mechanism and that you will break it if 
you drop it or handle it roughly. 

The first movement that you will want to learn 
is to stand at attention when holding your piece. 
The command is 

Order ARMS —This means that you must stand 
in the position of attention with the butt of the 
piece resting evenly on the ground and with the 
barrel toward the rear. The toe of the butt should 
come even with the toe of the right shoe, and should 
just touch it. Your right hand should hang easily at 
your side and you should hold the barrel of the piece 
between your thumb and fingers, your thumb being 
alongside the seam of your breeches and the piece 
being held well in toward you, as shown in Fig. 27. 

To change from order arms to what is known as 
present arms the command is 

Present ARMS —You must do this in two 

90 



THE MANUAL OF ARMS 

counts, namely: (i) With the right hand throw 
(not carry) the piece up and catch it with the left 
hand at the balance with the barrel to the rear 
and vertical to the ground, and with the left fore¬ 
arm horizontal to the ground. (2) With the right 




Fig. 27. Position Fig. 28. Position 

of Order Arms of Present Arms 

hand grasp the small of the stock. The muzzle of 
the barrel should be about even with the brim of 
your hat—see Fig. 28. 

From order arms you may also be called upon to 
execute the command 


91 










THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Port ARMS—You will do this in one count 
thus: (i) Throw the piece up and across the body, 
catching it with both hands at the same time, the 
left hand at the balance and the right hand at the 
small of the stock. The barrel should come across 



Fig. 29. Position of Port Arms 

your body just half-way between your left shoulder 
and neck, and the right forearm should be hori¬ 
zontal, the barrel being on top, as shown in Fig. 29. 

You can come to this position when at present 
arms if you simply follow the above directions; 

92 








THE MANUAL OF ARMS 


and vice versa you can come to present arms from 
port arms by following directions for present arms. 
If you are at either present or port arms you will 
come to order arms at the command 

Order ARMS—This is done in two counts, 
namely: (i) Let the piece drop to the right side 
and catch it when the butt is just three inches 
from the ground, with the right hand, the right 
arm being at full length. Bring the left hand 
across the body at the same instant you catch the 
piece and place your left hand, with thumb and 
fingers joined and extended, touching the forearm 
of the piece just below the stacking swivel. Then at 
the count (2) bring the left hand smartly to the left 
side and drop the piece gently to the ground, 
when you will be at the position of order arms as 
explained before. 

When the command 

Parade REST is given and you are at order 
arms you must come to parade rest in one count, 
to wit: (1) Carry the right foot to the rear as 
explained for parade rest in the school of the sol¬ 
dier, and with the right hand give your piece a 
twist so that it turns on the toe of the butt until 
directly in front of the body and rests squarely 
on the butt. Then place your left hand above and 
under your right, as shown in Fig. 30. 

To come back to attention, when that command 

93 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


is given, you will swing the piece back to the posi¬ 
tion of order arms and bring the right foot forward, 
bringing at the same time the left hand smartly to 
the side. 

When marching the piece is usually carried at 



Fig. 30. Position of Parade Rest 

either right or left shoulder anus. The command is 
Right Shoulder ARMS—This is done in three 
counts, as follows: (1) Take the position of port 
arms except with the right hand on the butt instead 
of the small of the stock, the heel of the butt being 

94 












THE MANUAL OF ARMS 

between the first two fingers of your hand—see 
Fig. 31. (2) Carry the piece to the right shoulder, 

the trigger-guard resting in the hollow of the 
shoulder and the piece at an angle of 45 degrees 
with the ground. The left hand should at the 



Fig. 31. Count (i) in Right Shoulder Arms 

same time be quickly slipped down the barrel until 
it reaches the small of the butt, and left there with 
fingers joined and extended, the forefinger touch¬ 
ing the cocking-piece, as shown in Fig. 32, until 
(3) the third count is given, when you will carry 

95 





THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


the left hand smartly to the left side and the move¬ 
ment is completed. 

To come from this position to order arms yon 
must (i) press down on the butt and bring the piece 
back to the position of count (i) in right shoulder 



Fig. 32. Count (2) in Right Shoulder Arms 

arms, taking care not to move the head as you do 
it, (2) drop the piece to the same position as 
count (2) of order arms, and (3) drop it to the 
ground as in count (3) order arms. 

If you are at port arms and want to come to 

96 




THE MANUAL OF ARMS 


right shoulder arms, (i) slide the right hand from 
the small of the stock to the butt, (2) carry the piece 
to the right shoulder as in count (2) of shoulder 
arms, and (3) carry the left hand smartly to the 
left side. 

To port arms from right shoulder arms (1) 
press down on the butt and bring the piece to the 
position of count (1) of right shoulder arms, and 
(2) change the right hand from the butt to the 
small of the stock. 

To present arms from right shoulder arms you 
must do port arms in two counts, and then on the 
third count you must with one motion give the piece 
a quarter turn around in your hands, bringing it to 
the position of present arms, with the barrel toward 
you. 

The next thing is to be able to execute left 
shoulder anus from the position of port arms at 
the command 

Left Shoulder ARMS—(1) With the right hand 
place the piece on the shoulder, grasping the butt 
as in right shoulder arms, and (2) carry the right 
hand smartly to the right side. 

To execute port arms from left shoulder arms 
you must grasp the piece at the small of the stock 
with the right hand, press down on the butt with 
the left, and come to port arms. ^ 

To change from right to left shoulder arms, or 

97 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


the other way around, come to the position of port 
arms first and then do a left or right shoulder arms. 

When you are at order arms and the command 
forward march is given you come to right shoulder 
arms without command, doing so in three counts but 
counting to yourself and making one count to a step. 
Thus you will have finished the movement in the 
first three steps. When the command halt is given 
you come back to order arms in three counts after 
you have executed the halt. 

Another position that the piece is carried at when 
marching is known as 

Trail ARMS—To come to this position from 
order arms, raise the piece about 4 inches from the 
ground, incline the muzzle forward so that the bar¬ 
rel will make an angle of about 30° with the verti¬ 
cal, the right arm being slightly bent. 

When on long marches the sling of the piece, that 
is the strap whose ends are attached to the butt and 
forearm, is used to carry it by either the right or left 
arm being slipped through the sling, the forearm of 
the piece resting against the back of the shoulder 
and the butt projecting from under the arm. How¬ 
ever, in squad, platoon, or company movements, the 
piece will be carried at right shoulder unless other¬ 
wise commanded. 

When a squad, platoon, or company is formed 

98 


THE MANUAL OF ARMS 


the men will be at the position of order arms, and 
it is the custom both before and after drilling them 
to hold an inspection of arms. The command is 
Inspection ARMS —(i) At the word arms you 
do port arms, and (2) then grasp the bolt handle 
of the piece with the right hand, and turn it up 
out of its notch, when you can draw it back. Now 
glance into the firing-chamber and if there is a 
cartridge there take it out and slip it into your 
belt; if not, raise the head and eyes to the front, 
keep your right hand on the bolt, and await the next 
command. It may be order arms. At the prepara¬ 
tory command (order) push the bolt forward, turn 
the handle down, and resume the position of port 
arms; at the command of execution (arms) com¬ 
plete the movement. 

After drill the squad is dismissed by the com¬ 
mands (1) Inspection Arms, (2) Port Arms and 
(3) Dismissed. 

The last piece movement that you should learn 
is the rifle salute. The command is 

Rifle SALUTE —If you are at order arms you 
must (1) bring your left hand smartly to the right 
side, with the palm down, thumb and fingers joined 
and extended, forefinger against the piece near the 
muzzle ; look toward the person saluted. (2) Carry 
your left hand back to your side snappily, and turn 
the head and eyes to the front. 

99 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


If you are at right shoulder arms (i) bring your 
left hand with the thumb and fingers joined and 
extended to the cocking-piece of the rifle. Your 
left arm should be parallel with the ground, the 
hand should be palm down and you must look 
straight at the person you are saluting; when (2) 
you must drop your left hand to your side snappily, 
and turn head and eyes to the front. 

Finally you should learn the movements that are 
done with the bayonet. As I explained before, the 
bayonet is 20 inches long, having a grip 4 inches 
long and a blade 16 inches long. It has a ring on 
the back of the blade which slips over the muzzle 
of the barrel and a spring in the handle which still 
further holds it on the barrel when once in place. 
The scabbard is made of metal and is worn on the 
belt on the left side. In the course of your drills 
you will probably be given the command 

Fix BAYONET —To do this you will come to 
the position of parade rest, draw the bayonet from 
its scabbard with the palm of your hand away from 
your body, and fix it to the barrel of your rifle 
as quickly as possible; next come back to order 
arms. 

When you want to return the bayonet to its scab¬ 
bard the command given is 

Unfix BAYONET —At the word bayonet you 
come to parade rest and with your right hand press 

100 


THE MANUAL OF ARMS 


the spring on the bayonet down. This will release 
the handle from the piece and you can draw it off 
the barrel until a foot above the muzzle, when you 
can return it to the scabbard. While doing this 
the piece is held in the left hand. When the bayo¬ 
net is sheathed you again take the position of 
order arms and hold the piece in your right hand. 

The above movements with the rifle and bayonet 
are the chief ones and all that it is necessary for 
you to know until you actually get into the army. 
Of course all of them are infantry drills, but if you 
learn them you will find that they will serve you 
well, no matter what branch of the service you 
volunteer for. 


IOX 


CHAPTER VIII 


HOW TO LEARN SIGNALING 

One of the most interesting and helpful things 
you can learn in the army is military signaling. 
There are many different kinds of signaling in use 
but they all fall under the head of either visual or 
sight signaling and sound signaling. Visual sig¬ 
naling is done by several different methods, of 
which there are two kinds that are largely in use 
in the army. The first way is to signal by your 
arms certain marching and firing commands. The 
second is to signal by means of flags, using different 
positions of the flags to represent letters of the 
alphabet. Furthermore there are two kinds of flag 
signaling and these are (i) the General Service 
method and (2) the two arm semaphore method. 

In the first method but one flag is used and the 
message is sent by means of an alphabet made up 
of dots and dashes, or code as it is called. In the 
second two flags are used and each different posi¬ 
tion of the arms represents a letter of the alphabet. 

Sound signaling is done as follows: (1) By 

102 


HOW TO LEARN SIGNALING 


means of the telephone, (2) by means of the tele¬ 
graph, and (3) by means of the wireless telegraph 
or radio as it is called. The last two systems use 
the General Service or International Morse Code 
of dots and dashes that is used for General Service 
flag signaling. 

About Arm Signaling —The first thing that you 
should learn is arm signaling, and the movements 
made with your hands and arms to give commands 
to infantry. When you give these commands the 
officer receiving them on the firing line should 
repeat them so that you can make sure he under¬ 
stood you. 

Forward MARCH —To give this signal you will 



Fig. 33. Forward March 


carry your right hand to your right shoulder with 
the fingers extended and joined, and the palm to 

103 






THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


the front. You will then thrust the arm forward 
in the direction you are going to march as shown 
in Fig. 33. If you do this signal when marching at 
double time it will indicate that the step is to be 
slowed down to quicktime. It can also be used to 
signal a detached scout to move forward. 

Halt —To signal halt, bring your hand to your 

/!;> 

••// 

l / 



Fig. 34. Halt 


shoulder as in Forward march; then raise your 
arm to its full height as shown in Fig. 34, keeping 
the palm to the front. When this signal is rapidly 
repeated several times while marching at quick 

104 










HOW TO LEARN SIGNALING 


time it indicates that the step is to be advanced to 
double time. It is also used to halt the detached 
scout or advance guard. 

Squads Right, MARCH —You should raise your 
arm sideways until on a line with your shoulders; 
then swing it several times from this position until 



it is directly above your shoulder and at full length, 
as shown in Fig. 35. When signaled to a detached 
scout it means to move by the right flank, until 
further signals are given. 

Squads Left, MARCH —This is done the same 
as squads right, except that the arm is swung down¬ 
ward to the side instead of upward. Upon receiv¬ 
ing this signal the detached scout will move to the 
left flank until further signals are received. See 
Fig. 36. 













THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Squads Right About, MARCH—When in close 
order the signal is given by carrying the arm to 
its full height above the head, and swinging it 
downward several times to the side as shown in 
Fig- 37 - If the signal is given when in skirmish 
formation it means To the rear march. At this 



signal a detached scout will move to the rear and 
await further command. 

Column Right (or Left), MARCH—If you 

want to signal Column right, bring the right hand 
across the body to the left shoulder, keeping it in the 
same line with your shoulders; then swing it back 

106 







HOW TO LEARN SIGNALING 


across the body, until it is at full length, with the 
hand pointing in the new direction the column is to 
march. If it is desired to signal Column left, use the 
left arm in a similar manner. See Fig. 38. 



As Skirmishers, MARCH —Both arms should be 
raised sideways until on a line with the shoulders. 
When a detached scout either sends or receives this 



Fig. 40. As Skirmishers 
Guide Center 


Fig. 39. As Skirmishers 


signal it means “Have important information” 
See Fig. 39. 

As Skirmishers Guide Center, MARCH —Raise 
the arms in the same manner as told above, then 
swing both at the same time until directly above 

107 
















THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


the head, palms out, and repeat several times, as 
shown in Fig. 40. 

As Skirmishers Guide Right (or Left), 

MARCH —Raise the arms sideways to the shoul¬ 
ders, as in Skirmishers march; if the guide is left 



Fig. 41. As Skirmishers Guide Right 

swing the right arm until directly above the head 
and repeat several times; if the guide is right swing 
the left arm in a similar fashion, as shown in Fig. 
41. 

Assemble, MARCH —Raise the arm to its full 



108 












HOW TO LEARN SIGNALING 


height and swing circles with the tips of the fingers, 
as shown in Fig. 42. 

Commence Firing —Extend the arm downward 



Fig. 43. Commence Firing 


with the hand out, fingers extended and joined, 
and the palm down, then move across the body 
several times. If done very rapidly this signal 
means to fire faster, while if done slowly it means 
to fire slower. It is shown in Fig. 43. 

Firing Range —To signal the firing range, ex- 



Fig. 44A. Range of Battle Sight 
109 











THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


tend your arm toward the soldiers for whom the 
signal is intended, with the fist closed as in Fig. 
44A. If you keep the fist closed the range is battle 
sight, while by opening the thumb and fingers you 
can show that the range is so many hundreds of 
yards, the thumb and each finger representing ioo 
yards of range. Decrease of range is shown by 



Fig. 44B. Increasing and Decreasing Range by 

500 Yards 

Fig. 44C. What is the Range? 

pointing the fingers downward; increase by point¬ 
ing them upward, as shown at B. 

To find the range that is being used, extend the 
arms toward the person whom you are signaling to, 
and rest one hand with the palm to the front and 
fingers open and joined, upon the closed fist of 
the other hand, as shown in Fig. 44C. 

To find out whether the person is ready to fire 
or to indicate to him that you are, extend the arm 
with palm toward the front and fingers open and 
joined. 


no 




HOW TO LEARN SIGNALING 


To Swing the Cone of Fire to the Right (or 
Left) —Extend the right arm at full length in front 



of your body and swing it to the right. To swing 
the cone of fire to the left use your left arm in a 
similar manner. The signal is shown in Fig. 45. 

Suspend Firing —Raise your arm and hold your 
hand in front of your face, palm to the front, as 



* v: 

Fig. 46. Suspend Firing 


shown in Fig. 46. To signal Cease firing, repeat 
this signal several times, by swinging the forearm 
up and down in front of the face. 

hi 








THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Fix Bayonet —Pretend to grasp the handle of a 
bayonet with your right hand, back toward the 
body, then pretend to draw it from the scabbard 
and fix it on the rifle. 

These are the chief arm signals and with a little 
practice you will be able to do them all, for they 
are easy. 

How to Signal with Flags —The first kind of 
signaling that you should learn about is the two- 
arm semaphore flag system. Two small signal flags 
are used and each different position of the flags 
represents a letter and sometimes a number, as 
you will see by looking at Fig. 47. Considerable 
practice will be necessary before you will be able 
to send and receive well, and you will find that, as 
in all other kinds of signaling, practice is the key¬ 
note of success. There are, however, a few useful 
hints that I can give you that will make your 
practice easier. 

You will notice that there are both a letter and a 
number in some of the squares in Fig. 47. This 
means that the position of the flags shown in the 
square represents either a letter or the number. 
Thus the signal for H may also mean 8 . In order 
that the receiver of the message can tell whether 
you are sending letters or numbers, you will always 
give the signal shown in the square with the word 
numerals over it, before sending any numbers, 

112 




ri 3 


Fig. 47. The Two-arm Semaphore Code 


































THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


otherwise it is understood that you are sending 
letters. 

You will also note the words, error, negative, in¬ 
terrogatory, affirmative, and acknowledge in the 
squares. Error means that the sender has made a 
mistake and wishes to correct it. Negative means 
no, interrogatory means that a question is to be 
sent, affirmative means yes, while acknowledge 
means that the sender wishes you to give that signal 
and thus indicate that you understand, or else when 
he gives the signal it shows that he understands. 

When learning the different positions you should 
first learn letters A to G, as you will notice that 
in these movements one arm is held stationary while 
the other travels in regular order around the body, 
beginning with right low position for A and ending 
with left low position for G. 

The following letters are opposites, that is to say, 
the signal for one is just the opposite of the other, 
and hence if you learn one you will instantly know 
the other. They are H—Z,- I—X, J—P, K—V, 
M—S, N—U, O—W, and Q—Y. This leaves L, 
R, and T which have no opposites and which you 
will have to trust to memory for. 

You will find a pair of field-glasses necessary to 
receive messages clearly over long distances. Fur¬ 
ther, you should always use dark flags to send with 
when standing against a light background, and light 

114 


HOW TO LEARN SIGNALING 


flags when standing against a dark background, 
otherwise it will be impossible for the receiver to 
distinguish your signals. 

You should also learn the following conven¬ 
tional signals and instructions, for they are in reality 
short-cuts and will save you much time when send¬ 
ing messages. 

Conventional Signals and Instructions for the 
Two-Arm Semaphore Code— 

To call of “Answer”: “Attention'’ followed by 
call letter of station called. Repeat as necessary. 

Both stations then make “Interval.” 

Repeat last word: C C “Interval” twice. 

Repeat last message: C C C “Interval” three 
times. 

Repeat after (word): C C “Interval” A (word). 

End of zvord: “Interval.” 

End of sentence: “Chop-chop” signal (made by 
placing both arms at the right horizontal and mov¬ 
ing them up and down in a cutting motion). 

End of message: Two successive “chop-chop” 
signals and withdrawing flags from view. 

Error: A A “Interval” then repeat word. 

To break in: “Attention.” 

Acknowledgment or understood: R. 

“Negative,” “Affirmative,” or “Interrogatory,” 
followed by “Interval” gives corresponding mean¬ 
ing to the following signal. 

115 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Receiver acknowledges “Attention” whenever 
made, also “Repeat,” etc., and “End of message,” 
when latter is understood. 

While waiting for “Acknowledgment,” or in case 
of delay, remain at “Interval.” 

Words not in code are spelled out. 


Letters of 
alphabet 

If signaled from the rear to 
the firing line 

If signaled from the firing 
line to the rear 

A M 

Ammunition going for¬ 
ward 

Ammunition required 

ccc 

Charge (mandatory at 
all times) 

Am about to charge if 
no instructions to the 
contrary 

CF 

Cease firing 

Cease firing 

D T 

Double time or “rush” 

Double time or “rush” 

F 

Commence firing 

Commence firing 

F B 

Fix bayonets 

Fix bayonets 

F L 

Artillery fire is causing 
us losses 

Artillery fire is causing 
us losses 

G 

Move forward 

Preparing to move for¬ 
ward 

HHH 

Halt 

Halt 

K 

Negative 

Negative 

LT 

Left 

Left 

O 

What is the R. N., etc. 

What is the R. N., etc. 

P 

Affirmative 

Affirmative 

R 

Acknowledgment 

Acknowledgment 

R N 

Range 

Range 

RT 

Right 

Right 

SSS 

Support going forward 

Support needed 

SUF 

Suspend firing 

Suspend firing 

T 

Target 

Target 

M 

Horses going forward 

Bring up horses 


116 














Letters of alphabet 

Meaning of signals 

A 

Error 

A D 

Additional 

AKT 

Draw ammunition from combat train 

A L 

Draw ammunition from limbers 

AMC 

At my command 

AP 

Aiming point 

B (numerals) 

Battery (so many) rounds 

B S (numerals) 

(Such) battalion station 

B L 

Battery from the left 

B R 

Battery from the right 

CS 

Close station 

CT 

Change target 

D 

Down 

DF 

Deflection 

F C L (numerals) 

On first piece close by (so much) 

FOP (numerals) 

On first piece open by (so much) 

I X 

Execute. Go ahead. Transmit 

JI 

Report firing data 

KR 

Corrector 

L 

Preparatory attention 

L C L (numerals) 

On fourth piece close by (so much) 

LOP (numerals) 

On fourth piece open by (so much) 

L L 

Left from the left 

LR 

Left from the right 

L E (numerals) 

Less (so much) 

M D 

Move down 

M L 

Move to your left 

M R 

Move to your right 

MU 

Move up 

M 0 (numerals) 

Move (so much) 

N 

Annul. Cancel 

PS 

Percussion. Shrapnel 

QRQ 

Send faster 

QRS 

Send slower 

QRT 

Cease sending 

RS 

Regimental station 

R L 

Right from left 

RR 

Right from right 

S 

Subtract 

S C L (numerals) 

On second piece close by (so much) 

SOP (numerals) 

On second piece open by (so much) 

SH 

Shell 

SI 

Site 

T C L (numerals) 

On third piece close by (so much) 

TOP (numerals) 

On third piece open by (so much) 

U 

Up 

Y (letter) 

(Such) battery station 












THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


“Numerals” precedes every number sent, and 
indicates numerals until “Interval” is made, after 
which letters appear without any further indication. 
When numerals follow letters no intervening “In¬ 
terval” is necessary. 

The numerals are the first ten letters in order. 

When communicating with the Navy, numerals 
must be spelled out. 



ft THE STARTING B- THE DOT. 

POSITION 



Fig. 48. Positions of Flag in General Service 
Dot-Dash Code 


For communication between the firing line and 
the reserve or commander in the rear, the following 
signals (Signal Corps Codes) are prescribed and 
should be memorized. In transmission, their con¬ 
cealment from the enemy’s view should be insured. 
In the absence of signal flags, the headdress or 
other substitute may be used. 

The General Service Code —You are now ready 
to learn the General Service or International Morse 

118 













LETTERS 


E ft 
I ft ft 
S ft ft • 

H • if • 



A 

W 

J 



N 

D 

B 






R ft 
L • 




P 

Q 

x 






V# • • ■ 

NUMBERS 


1 

2 

3 

4 
6 
6 

7 

8 
e 
o 




Fig. 49. The General Service Code Simplified 

119 















THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 

Code as it is called. The code is made up of dots 
and dashes, and it is used for General Service Flag 
Signals and for sound signaling of all kinds. 

Different from the two-arm semaphore system 
of flag signaling, the General Service system uses 
only one flag, and instead of each position of the 
flag representing a letter, there are only two posi¬ 
tions, and these represent the dot and dash of the 
code. Fig. 48 (A, B, C and D) shows the positions 
the flag is held. The first illustration shows the 
starting position, the second the dot, the third the 
dash, and the fourth the front. When doing these 
positions you should take great care to make your 


Meaning of signal 


Signal 


Front 

Front Front 

Front Front Front 

Sig. Front 

A A Front 

M M Front 

M M M Front 

C C Front A Front (word) 

C C Front Front 

C C C Front Front Front 

R R Front 

L L Front 

U U Front 

D D Front 

F F Front 

B K Front 


End of word 
End of sentence 
End of message 
Signature follows 
Error 

Acknowledgment 
Cease signaling 
Repeat after (word) 
Repeat last word 
Repeat last message 
Move a little to the right 
Move a little to the left 
Move a little uphill 
Move a little downhill 
Signal faster 
Break or stop sending 


120 










Period_ 

Semicolon. 

Comma_ 

Colon_ 


Interrogation_ 

Exclamation point. 
Apostrophe 
Hyphen_ 


Bar indicating fraction. 
Parenthesis_ 


Inverted Commas. 
Underline_ 


Double Dash. 


Distress Call- 


Attention call to precede 
evei-y transmission_ 

General inquiry call_ 

From (de)_ 


Invitation to transmit 
(go ahead)_ 

Warning — high power_ 

Question (please repeat 
after ...)—interrupting 
long messages- 

Wait- 


-© © 

© 


© © 
© 9 


9 9 

.fcSfe-I 

.© Bsea BS3B ebb 
EH 9 9 9 9 BSSi 
-SSH 9 9 BBS 9 
BH © BB BM • 

-© © • BBi • 


-© 


• © © 


© © • 


• • 


© © 


Break (Bk.) (double dash)_j| 

Understand-© 

Error-—-© 


BBI © • 

m © • © 


© • • • • 


Received (0. K.)-© m 

Position report to precede _ 

all position messages)-BBS $ 

End of each message (cross) ©, BB # 

Transmission finished (end 
of work) (conclusion of 
correspondence)-© • • H 

Fig. 50. General Service Punctuation and 
Abbrevations in Code 


121 



























THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


movements plain, otherwise you will run your dots 
and dashes together. 

Fig. 49 shows the code, and the letters are so 
arranged that you will find it easy to memorize them. 
Fig. 50 gives the punctuation-marks used in sending 
messages, and you should learn them as well. 

Below are some of the signals used in the Gen¬ 
eral Service Code. All of the conventional signals 


SPACE 


SPACE 


H 


iBHMn 1 

I 12 3 


II 1 "MM g WFHT 


SPACE E 


Fig. 51. Length of Dot and Dash and Spacing 
Between Letters and Words 


used in two-arm semaphore flag signaling are also 
used except O .—What is the range? In the General 
Service Code this signal consists of two dots, two 
dashes, and then two more dots. 

Sound Signaling —Having discussed all the 
methods of sight or visual signaling I shall now say 
a few words about sound signaling. 

When the telephone is used of course all that is 
necessary is to talk as plain English into it as you 
can, and unless the listener is a Dutchman he’ll 
know what you mean. 

The wire and wireless telegraph systems both 
use the General Service Code and its conventional 
signals as given before. The main thing you must 
bear in mind in sending is that a dash is just three 

122 




























HOW TO LEARN SIGNALING 


times as long in sound as a dot, and you should 
make it a particular point to make your dots and 
dashes the right length, and to keep them so. See 

Fig- SI- 

The telegraph used in the army is slightly differ¬ 
ent from the regular kind, for instead of a sounder, 
a buzzer is connected in, and this is much easier 
to distinguish dots and dashes on than the regular 
sounder. 

If you bear all of the pointers in mind that I 
have given you in this chapter, and practice faith¬ 
fully besides, it will not be long before you are an 
expert signalman. 


123 


CHAPTER IX 


HOW TO BECOME AN EXPERT 
MARKSMAN 

In this chapter I shall give you the first principles 
of marksmanship for rifle and pistol or revolver 
shooting. As with everything else, the art of being 
a good marksman, with a rifle or pistol, depends 
almost entirely on getting the first principles down 
to your finger-tips right on the jump. If you start 
to practice and use wrong methods, or fail to know 
just why you do certain things, you will probably 
never become a sharpshooter. 

There is one other kind of marksmanship that I 
am going to tell you about and that is bayonet fight¬ 
ing. Although you may think that this is a strange 
name for it, nevertheless to get so that you can use 
the bayonet well is just as much a matter of marks¬ 
manship, and requires just as steady a hand, as clear 
an eye, and as swift a judgment, as rifle or pistol 
shooting. 

You will not only be a poor soldier if you don’t do 
your best to become a crack-shot, but you will be 

124 


HOW TO BECOME AN EXPERT MARKSMAN 


taking your life in your own hands, for every day 
in the trenches calls for all the skill with pistol, 
rifle, or bayonet, that you can muster. 

As I said before, bad habits in the beginning will 
ruin your chances of becoming a good marksman, 
and so you should make up your mind to do what¬ 
ever you do right, and not to try anything new, or 
be satisfied until you can do it right. 

Rifle Firing Positions —The first thing that you 
must do to become a good rifle shot is to learn the 
correct ways to hold your rifle. These methods and 
positions have been worked out by riflemen of long 
experience, and as they are impossible to better 
they are the ones n^w in use in our army. 

There are three positions from which a rifle is 
fired in actual battle and these are (i) standing, 
(2) kneeling, and (3) lying down, or prone, as it 
is called. 

The standing position is as follows: Stand with 
your right foot about twelve inches from your left 
and with your left side nearest the target. Rest 
your weight evenly on both feet so that you have 
no inclination to sway forward or back, or to one 
side or the other. In a word, you should be as 
steady as a rock. 

Hold the rifle with the butt pressed firmly against 
your right shoulder, with your right arm horizontal 
to the ground, the fingers of the right hand clasped 

125 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


smoothly around the stock, and the fore or trigger 
finger crooked over the trigger. Your cheek should 
rest on the raised part or comb of the stock, and 
your left hand should grasp the forearm of the 
piece, the fingers being in the grasping groove. The 
left elbow will be directly under the rifle, and the 



Fig. 52. Correct Standing Firing Position 

muscles of the body must not be strained, otherwise 
your aim will be wabbly. This is clearly shown 
in Fig. 52. 

The kneeling position is shown in Fig. 53. Kneel 
on your right knee and have it making an angle of 
about 45 degrees with the target. Hold the rifle as 

126 










HOW TO BECOME AN EXPERT MARKSMAN 


shown in the figure, with the flat of the left elbow 
resting firmly on the left knee. The flat of the el- 



Fig. 53. Correct Kneeling Firing Position 

bow is just back of the point. The right elbow 
should be on the same line as the shoulders. 

The prone position is shown in Fig. 54. It is 
the one that you will use most in actual fighting and 



it is consequently the one that you should practice 
most. The whole secret of success in this position 
is to lie so that you are absolutely comfortable. To 

127 






THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


take the prone position, lie down on your stomach 
with your legs spread wide apart and at an angle 
of about 60 degrees to the left of the line of sight. 
Place both elbows on the ground, in slight hollows 
that you have scooped out for this purpose. Raise 
the right shoulder a little higher than the left and 
bring the piece up to it as shown in the figure. 

You should, practice these positions until you 
can drop into them in a moment's time with ease. 
A good drill is to go from the standing to the kneel¬ 
ing, kneeling to the prone, prone to the standing, 
and from the standing back to the prone position. 
Having learned these moves so that they are second 
nature to you, you are ready to learn about the 
sights on the piece. 

The Rear Sights —The rear sight on the rifle is 
the important one, for it is so made that you can 
adjust it to shoot right for any distance, or eleva¬ 
tion as it is called, up to the range of the piece. 
You can also allow for the drift, or sideways error 
of the bullet caused by its rotary motion on its 
long axis, and for any wind that might blow the 
bullet out of its course, or path. If you will look 
back at the top view of the piece shown in Fig. 
26 you will see the windage screw and the drift 
slide labeled on the drawing. 

You should not monkey with the drift slide, at 
least until you become an expert rifleman, for the 

128 


HOW TO BECOME AN EXPERT MARKSMAN 


drift of a bullet is so small at ordinary shooting 
ranges as to be scarcely noticeable. 

The windage, as the effect of the wind is called, 
is a different matter; but you should not set it until 
you have tried two or three shots to see where the 
bullet hits. Suppose that each of your trial shots 
hits 16 inches left of the bull’s-eye or black spot 
in the center of the target. If you have aimed cor¬ 
rectly, this will show that the wind has blown the 
bullet 16 inches to the left of the path it would 
otherwise have followed. Look at the windage 
scale and you will notice marks upon it. Each mark 
is called a point, and the windage screw can be 
turned so that the rear sight will move to the right 
or left until it reaches the mark or point where it 
will correct the effect of the wind on the bullet by 
making you aim to the left or right. Every time 
you move the sight one point it changes the place 
where the bullet will strike 4 inches in 100 yards 
of range. Consequently if you are shooting over a 
100-yard range and you hit your target 16 inches 
to the left every time, you must shift your sight 
4 points to the left, and since each point will throw 
the bullet 4 inches to the right, 4 points will throw 
it over the full 16 inches, when it will strike the 
target in the bull’s-eye. 

There are two chief rear sights on your rifle 

129 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


that you will use most and these are (i) the battle 
sight, and (2) the peep sight. 

The battle sight is what is known as an open sight, 
that is, you see the bull’s-eye and the target over 
the top of the sight. The peep sight is a closed 
sight and you see the bull’s-eye only, through a tiny 
hole in its center. As it keeps too much light from 

GUIDE 


SLIDE WITH 
PEEPHOLEJ 


Fig. 55. A Peep Sight 

entering the eye it is useful for very accurate 
shooting. The battle sight is fixed for accurate 
shooting at 547 yards, while the peep sight can be 
adjusted to shoot at various ranges or elevations 
as follows: 

On the guide that the peephole slide works upon 
you will find lines with the range in hundred yards 
marked upon them. Thus the number 5 above a 
line means that when the sight is set to that line, 
you will be doing accurate shooting at 500 yards. 
Slide the peephole slide up or down on the guide 

130 











HOW TO BECOME AN EXPERT MARKSMAN 


until the center of the peephole is opposite the range 
you are going to shoot at, and then screw the slide 
up tight. It is shown in Fig. 55. When setting the 
peep sight, you should take great pains to set it 
accurately to the range, for a slight mistake will 
throw your shots away out, and if you are shooting 
at a long range you will be lucky if you hit the 
target at all. 


FRONT 

SIGHT 



Fig. 56. How the Two Sights are Aligned 
with the Bull’s-Eye 


How to Aim—Now that you know about the 
positions and sights, and how to adjust them, you 
are ready to aim at the target. You are at the 
standing, kneeling, or prone position, and are in a 
good comfortable attitude so that you should be 
able to aim fairly steadily. 

If you are using your battle sight, look through 
the notch in it until you see the bull’s-eye just above 
the top of the sight, as shown in Fig. 56. Then 
raise the muzzle of the piece until the tip or bead 
of the front sight is a hair’s-breadth below the 
bull’s-eye. You must never center the bead of 
the front-sight on the center of the bull’s-eye, or 

- 131 



THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


you will overshoot. When you are using the peep 
sight you do exactly the same as with the battle 
sight, getting the bull’s-eye just above the center 
of the peephole, and bringing the bead of the 
front sight up to it. You must not look at the 
front sight but rather look through the rear sight 
at the target and you will then see the front sight 
without shortening your vision any. 

The Right Way to Fire—Now comes the most 
important part of shooting. This is known as the 
trigger squeeze. Grip your hand firmly around the 
small of the stock of the piece, but not so tightly 
as to cause your aim to waver, with the first joint 
of the trigger finger on the trigger. 

Now, as a matter of fact, no matter how steady 
your nerves are, the piece will waver from side to 
side slightly. You must hold your breath just as 
you get ready to fire, wait until the front sight again 
comes just under the bull’s-eye, and then squeeze 
the small of the stock, contracting the trigger finger 
at the same time, when the piece will go off. This 
squeeze is much better than a violent pull on the 
trigger from one finger alone, and you must by all 
means cultivate it if you have hopes of becoming 
a sharpshooter. 

Just as you squeeze the trigger you should see 
how the sights appear on the target, so that you 
can find out if your shot hit it where you think it 

132 


HOW TO BECOME AN EXPERT MARKSMAN 


should have. Unless you do this every time your 
practice will be of no value whatever. When you 
find that you are not hitting where you aim, if you 
are sure of your aim, try setting the elevation and 
windage sights more accurately as explained before, 
instead of changing your aim. But whatever you 
do, use your head, and don’t go around firing 
blindly, and changing your sights without having the 
least idea where the trouble is. 

Pistol and Revolver Shooting—You will find 
pistol and revolver shooting even more fascinat¬ 
ing and difficult than rifle practice. In the first 
place, you steady a rifle with both hands, whereas 
the pistol is steadied with one hand only. As a 
result you will find it much harder to hold a pistol 
on a mark than a rifle. What I have just said about 
aiming and trigger squeeze applies to the pistol, 
and in aiming and firing you must carry out the 
rules laid down for rifle practice to the letter. 

Grip the revolver or pistol in your right hand, 
with your fingers clasped tightly around the stock, 
and the first joint of your trigger finger on the 
trigger. Hold your right arm out at full length and 
on a level with your shoulders. Just as the front 
sight crosses below the bull’s-eye, hold your breath, 
give the trigger the squeeze, and your bullet should 
find its way to the bull’s-eye. Since there are no 
sight corrections on a pistol you cannot make it 

133 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


shoot as accurately as you can a rifle. If, however, 
you find that you are not coming near the bull’s- 
eye do not shift your aim but try holding the 
pistol steadier. As a rule, the pistol will be accurate 
enough and your aim will be all right, but you will 
spoil everything at the last moment by a poor trigger 
squeeze, or by flinching. 

Cavalrymen are encouraged to point their un¬ 
loaded pistols at various objects, aim them, and 
squeeze the triggers. You should do the same, 
for next to actual shooting this is the best kind of 
practice you can get, that is, if you do it well every 
time. When shooting at long ranges with a pistol 
or revolver, raise or elevate the muzzle about one- 
half inch for every one hundred yards that you are 
shooting over ioo yards; if you don’t do this the 
bullet will drop and you will undershoot. Most 
revolvers will shoot accurately up to ioo yards. 

About Estimating Distance—For shooting over 
long ranges it is necessary that you should be able 
to estimate distances fairly well. You should take 
a three-foot rule and lay off 50 yards some day, 
and get this length firmly fixed in your mind. Then 
when you are shooting at a distant target you can 
judge how many times farther than 50 yards it is 
and set your sights accordingly. 

You must remember, however, that objects seen 
from a hill-top, or in a very bright light, always 

134 


HOW TO BECOME AN EXPERT MARKSMAN 


look nearer than they really are. Also keep in 
mind that when looking uphill, across a valley, 
through a woods, or in a dim light objects seem 
farther away than they really are. You must 
allow for these conditions when setting your sights. 

When shooting downhill at an object, you will 
have to aim quite low to keep from overshooting; 
and, vice versa, when shooting uphill you will 
have to aim high on the target to prevent under¬ 
shooting, both of which are very common faults. 

With the hints that I have given you so far, 
you ought to be able to give a good account of 
yourself with either rifle or revolver on the firing 
range or in battle. 

The First Principles of Bayonet Fighting— 

There is one more thing that I want you to know 
about and that is bayonet fighting. 

In the first place, when you meet an enemy in 
the trenches he is going to do his best to kill you, 
and you on the other hand are going to do bet¬ 
ter than his best to prevent it. It is clear that 
there is only one way to do this, and that is to 
jab him with your bayonet. Of course you have 
to be very quick and sure or he will get you first. 
Now the purpose of bayonet practice is to give 
you a quick eye and sure hand and foot, which 
will save your life when you meet an opponent 
hand to hand. 


135 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


In bayonet fighting you must remember (i) that 
whoever strikes the first blow is the victor, for 
there is only chance for one blow; and (2) to 
strike your opponent in a vital spot, where (3) 
your bayonet will go in easily and can be pulled 
out easily or else you will find yourself defenseless. 

How to Hold the Piece—Now as to the method 
of holding the piece. A great many bayonet man¬ 
uals go on to give absolute directions for holding 
the piece and for its actual use, but this is all tom- 
myrot. In the first place, all pieces and bayonets 
are of the same size and length, while every sol¬ 
dier differs in build. Consequently it is impossible 
to tell you just exactly the p'aces to hold on the 
piece, for the spots that I would find very easy 
would be decidedly uncomfortable for you. Fur¬ 
ther it is your piece that you are using and your 
life that you are fighting for, and no one has a 
better right to use that piece as he likes than you. 

In general the piece should be grasped at the 
small of the stock with the right hand, the left 
hand catching the piece somewhere along the fore¬ 
arm, as near the muzzle as possible, for this is the 
hand you guide the bayonet with when you thrust. 
It then makes an excellent stabbing weapon, for 
by letting go of it entirely with the left hand you 
can reach an opponent even though he be eight 

136 


HOW TO BECOME AN EXPERT MARKSMAN 


feet or more from you. By giving your arms a 
full swing you can down any one who is six feet 
from you, and with a very slight movement can 
run him through at three feet. 

In Fig. 57 the crosses show the most vital spots 
where you can get your bayonet in easily and out 



Fig. 57. Parts of the Body Where Bayonet Thrust 

is Most Effective 

quickly. In order to hit one of these spots you 
must have trained yourself so that you can aim 
at and puncture a spot the size of a silver dollar 
under all conditions. 

On Bayonet Practice—The best way to prac¬ 
tice this is to get an old potato sack and stuff it 
full of old rags and papers. Hang it up by a 
rope so that it is about the same height as a man’s 

137 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


body, and paint on it, with black paint, spots which 
correspond to the vital spots on a man. 

Practice charging bags such as this, uphill and 
down, until you can, while on the run, pass your 
bayonet through the spot you aim at and pull it 
out without stopping. You should not try to run 
your bayonet clear through the bag, for if you did 
this to a live man you would never be able to 
get it out. From four to six inches is plenty far 
enough to stick the bayonet into the bag, for you 
can then pull it out easily. At the same time, 
though, you should make your thrust snappy and 
powerful. 

Of course, going out now and then and taking a 
half-hearted poke at the bag won’t make you a 
good bayonet fighter, any more than taking an 
occasional shot at the moon will make a man an 
expert rifleman. You must practice for at least 
one solid hour every day, and you must do your 
practice well. You want to remember, too, that 
you are not doing this simply for the fun of the 
thing, but that you are practicing so that you will 
be able to defend yourself, and this thought ought 
to be enough to encourage you to work as well 
as you know how. 


138 


CHAPTER X 


MILITARY MAP READING AND MAKING 

Before a trapper goes into a new territory he 
buys a map of the country where he intends to 
snare the wily fur-bearer, and he studies it until 
he knows every foot of the land. Then when he 
arrives on the scene of action he knows exactly 
where he is going, and how to go. Now a mili¬ 
tary campaign is very much like a trapping cam¬ 
paign, in that good, accurate maps of the territory 
where the operations are going to take place are 
the first essentials of success, and to be a success¬ 
ful soldier you should be able to read and make 
military maps. 

The Value of Maps to an Army —But by maps 
I do not want you to think I mean the kind that 
are printed in railroad time-tables and school geog¬ 
raphies, for these are of the crudest kind imagi¬ 
nable, and though they serve their purpose they are 
not intended to show accurately any of the things 
that you would need to know in order to march 
and feed an army safely on that ground. Fur- 

139 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


ther, these maps are usually very small, and even 
if made fairly well there would be no room on 
them to show anything other than a few large 
ranges of mountains, great rivers, and big cities. 
Of course you can easily see that such a map as 
this, upon which an inch represents a hundred 
miles or so, would be of no value to the commander 
of a large army which moves only fifteen miles a 
day on forced marching, for it would not show 
the places where food, or forage as it is called, 
could be had, or ambushes and other dangers of 
a like kind might be hidden.. Only a large map 
showing plainly every hill, river, road, tree, house, 
and path, would be of service to such an army. 

This kind of map is known as a topographic map, 
and to be of the greatest value it must also show 
the exact shape—or contour —of every hill and 
valley and its height or depth as well. 

If you stop to think for a minute, this will all 
be very clear to you. Suppose you had a map which 
showed all the important landmarks but did not tell 
their heights. You would look at it and make up 
your mind to march twelve miles across what 
seemed to be a range of small hills and valleys on 
the map. Upon reaching them you would discover 
that they were impassable mountains and canons, 
and your army would have made a tiresome march 
to no purpose. 

140 


MILITARY MAP READING AND MAKING 

Finally, a good map must have the scale or 
size it is drawn to, and the directions marked 
upon it, otherwise if you want to reach a certain 
town on the map you can’t tell how far away it 
is, or which way to march to get there. 

The Kinds of Maps in Military Use —Having 
these things in mind you are ready to begin to 
read maps. There are two kinds of topographic 
maps in use and these are (i) contour maps and 
(2) hatchure maps. 

Contour maps are the most useful, for they 
show the heights of the hills and the depths of 
the valleys and are used by an army for engineer¬ 
ing work and all other kinds that call for the most 
accurate map that can be had. 

Hatchure maps show the hills and valleys, but 
as they do not tell their heights they are of less 
value from an engineering standpoint of view, al¬ 
though much easier to make. 

A contour map can be made only by actually 
walking or riding over the ground you are map¬ 
ping, and measuring and estimating distances and 
heights, while a hatchure map can be made from 
a tree top, mountain, observation balloon, or air¬ 
plane, and so for this reason finds nearly as great 
a use as the contour map. You can easily learn 
to read and make both kinds, and you will find 
that knowing how to do so will be of the greatest 

141 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


service to you on scouting expeditions, and, what 
is of still more importance, to your commander. 

On Learning to Read Contour Maps —The first 
kind of map that you should learn to read is the 
contour map. If you will turn to Fig. 60, which 
is a contour map of a part of Maryland and West 
Virginia known as the Pawpaw Quadrangle, you 
will have before you a typical contour map. To 
an untrained eye all that can be seen is the large 
and meandering river running diagonally across the 
map, and numerous other smaller rivers and 
streams, but to a trained eye there is much more 
to it. For see you now, above and directly to 
the right of the point marked A on the map, a 
small and nearly round ring with the number 900 
printed on the line which makes it. Above that 
you will find other rings with the numbers 800, 
700, and 600, on them. These rings and num¬ 
bers show the shapes and heights of hills or moun¬ 
tains and you will observe that the whole map 
is covered with them. 

To understand just what they mean turn back 
to Fig. 58, which is a perspective view of two 
islands in the Pacific Ocean. Suppose at one time 
that these islands were completely covered with 
water and that the water began to go down, and 
finally the top of the big hill stuck out above the 
surface of the sea twenty feet. For a long time 

142 


MILITARY MAP READING AND MAKING 


nothing happened until years later the water went 
down another twenty feet and left a ring or wa¬ 
ter mark around the hill which I have numbered 
i. This happened again and again until there 
were five rings around the hill, each twenty feet 
apart, and the hill stuck up out of the water one 
hundred feet. The little hills on the right had 



only two rings and so only stuck up a little over 
forty feet. 

About Contour Lines—This is exactly what 
we suppose when we want to make a contour 
map of a hill; the rings are called contour lines 
and the space between two of them, which is 20 
feet, is called the contour interval. Of course 
they are not round rings, because the hills are not 
exactly round. Twenty feet is the contour interval 
used on almost all maps, although you can use 
a larger or smaller interval as you like. 

143 

































THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Now look at Fig. 59 A, which is a side view 
or profile of the hills. The rings are the straight 
lines and as you can now plainly see from the 
figures on the left they are 20 feet apart. If you 
now drop lines from each end of the contour 


CONTOUR. LINES 



Fig. 59. How a Contour Map is Made 

A. Profile View of Islands 

B. Contour Map of Islands 


lines in A and draw in between these lines the 
actual shape of the hill at that point you will have 
a picture or top view of the hill that will look 
like B, and this is exactly how the map shown in 
Fig. 60 was made. The contour lines in B are 
numbered with their heights just as they were 

144 



























Fig. 6o. How the Marking Strip is Used 
(Observer at A) 










MILITARY MAP READING AND MAKING 

in A, and you can at once see that since there 
are 5 of them and the contour interval is 20 feet, 
the big hill is 100 feet high. However, we have 
supposed that the hill was an island and so the 
lowest contour line was at sea-level or o feet. 
In the map in Fig. 60 the river naturally flows at 
the lowest level possible and as you will see by 
looking at the place I have marked with a circle 
and called C this is about 500 feet above sea-level. 
From this you can see that on the map the hills 
start not at sea-level as did our island but at 500 
feet above it and rise at 20-foot intervals to as 
high as 1900 feet as shown by the circle at D. 
To make the map easier to read, every fifth con¬ 
tour line is made heavier than the others* and is 
numbered. Since the contour interval is 20 feet, 
every five lines show a rise in height of 100 feet. 

Knowing these things, you should now be able 
to look at the map and without much studying 
pick out the mountains and valleys, and you can 
see that the reason the river follows such a mean¬ 
dering course is because it is running in the only 
valley in the region. You will also observe that 
the streams, as you might expect, start up in the 
mountains and flow down into the river valley 
where they empty into the river. 

What You Can Tell From a Contour Map— 
But suppose now that you are standing on the 

145 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


summit of the mountain marked A, which is 940 
feet high, and are looking out over the country in 
the direction shown by the line to B. You would 
see a large number of hills, but on the other hand 
some hills would be so large as to prevent you from 
seeing smaller hills behind them, and the only way 
for you to tell what you could see when you look 
at the map is to get the visibility as it is called as 
follows: 

How to Draw a Profile Map—Draw a line 
from the point where you are standing along the 
map in the direction you are looking, as at AB. 
Now cut out a strip of paper or marking strip 
as I shall call it, and lay it along the line. With 
your pencil make a mark on the marking strip at 
each place where the line AB crosses a heavy con¬ 
tour line on the map, and by looking at the num¬ 
ber on the contour line find its height and write 
it down on the marking strip under the mark. 
Continue in this way until you have gone as far 
as you wish to. Fig. 60 shows the marking strip 
in place with the marks and heights or elevations 
as they are called of the contour lines. 

Now either rule a piece of paper as shown in 
Fig. 61 or get a Standard Profile Plate 4 x 20 inches 
from a dealer in drawing material. 1 Look for 
the lowest elevation on your map—in this case it 

1 KeufTel and Esser, 103 Fulton Street, New York. 

146 


MILITARY MAP READING AND MAKING 


is about 400 feet—and starting with it mark the 
left-hand edge of the profile sheet, as shown in 
Fig. 42, going from the lowest to the highest con¬ 
tour on the map. 

Next take your marking strip and lay it along 
the bottom of the profile sheet, as shown in the 



Fig. 61. How the Profile View is Laid Out on 
Plotting Paper. The Shaded Sections are 
Those that Cannot be Seen 

figure. Draw a dotted line straight upward from 
the first mark until it has reached a height on 
the profile paper equal to the elevation written 
under it on the marking strip. Thus I drew up¬ 
ward from the 940 mark until I came opposite the 
940 on my profile sheet. Do this with all the 
marks and then connect the ends of all the dotted 
lines, when you will have an outline of the moun¬ 
tain or profile, as it is called, as shown in the figure. 
You can now easily see which parts of the hills 

147 
























































































































THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 

would be visible to you if you were standing at 
A, by drawing lines as shown in the figure and 
shading the parts which lie back of a hill and cannot 
be seen. 

If you now want to show on your original map 
just what parts can be seen or are visible, and 
those that cannot be seen or are invisible, lay a 
clean marking strip under the profile and drop a 
straight line from the end of each shaded or in¬ 
visible section to the strip. The space between 
these lines will be the part that is invisible. If 
now you take this strip and lay it on your original 
map along the line AB you can see just what 
parts can be seen and what cannot, as shown in 
Fig. 60. 

The Value of the Profile—As you can see by 
looking at the figure, an army would have a hard 
time marching straight from A to B, and would 
do far better to follow the river-bed, which is flat 
and level, even though it would be marching many 
miles out of its way. From this you can see the 
value of being able to make profile maps from a 
contour map, for by means of them you can pick 
out the easiest and quickest route for your army 
to march. 

There are still two other things that you must 
know about contour maps if you are to use them 

148 


MILITARY MAP READING AND MAKING 


well but these are easy compared with what you 
have just learned. 

How to Tell the Scale of a Map—The first is 
about the scale, that is the size the map is drawn 
to. As I explained before, a map must be drawn 
so that you can tell distances 6n it. Thus you can 
take a piece of country five miles long and draw 
it one inch long. The scale will then be one inch 
equals five miles, or as it is usually written, i inch= 
5 miles or I in 15 mi. 

On the bottom of the map in Fig. 60 you will 
find the words scale 1162,500. This means that 
1 inch on the map equals 62,500 inches of land. 
Now 62,500 inches of land is equal to 5,20854 feet, 
and since a mile is equal to 5,280 feet you can 
see that one inch on the map is equal to nearly one 
mile of land. Occasionally you will find the scale 
written this way, ^ ut F means the same as 

1 162,500. 

On Finding the Direction—The other thing I 
want to tell you about is direction. On a map 
intended for travel you will find an arrow in the 
lefthand corner thus 



149 




THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


The arrow shows which way north is on the 
map. In order to use the map you must have 
an accurate compass (and you can buy one of the 
New York Sporting Goods Company at 17 War¬ 
ren St., New York, for $1.50, that will serve your 
purpose). Lay your compass on the map just to 
one side of the direction arrow, and wait until the 



Fig. 62. Hatchure Map of Islands 


needle comes to rest and is pointing north. Now 
hold the compass and gently turn—or orient as it is 
called—the map until the arrow on it points in 
the same direction as your compass needle. The 
map is then in a position so that you can see where 
you are and which way to travel if you want to 
reach some town or other landmark on the map. 

How Hatchure Maps Are Made —As I told you 
before, the other kind of map is known as the 
hatchure map. Although drawn to scale and direc¬ 
tion it does not show elevations accurately. Fig. 
62 shows a hatchure map of the islands, and you 

150 













MILITARY MAP READING AND MAKING 


can easily see that although it stands out better 
and looks better to the eye, still it has small merit 
as an accurate map. From the figure you can 
see how the hills are shaded. Lines close together 
indicate a steep hill, while those far apart show 
a gentle slope. This type of map is used to a great 
extent by the Germans, who are past masters in 
the art of making them, and by means of the in¬ 
formation they put on them, can make them a 
pretty good substitute for our contour maps. As 
a matter of fact the hatchure map is a European 
scheme, while the contour map is strictly an Ameri¬ 
can invention although it has recently been adopted 
by the Japanese. 

The Symbols Used in Map Making—To be of 
greatest service a map should have on it the towns, 
villages, roads, and bridges, and other like things 
that are known as culture features , since they are 
put there by the hand of man. Fig. 63 shows 
the symbols that are in use fo represent these fea¬ 
tures on a map. If you look at the map in the 
figure you will see that many of these symbols are 
used. You should, however, be sure to make 
symbols of all kinds very small when mapping, 
or otherwise the whole appearance of the map will 
be ruined. 

Still other important things are the lakes, streams, 
marshes, etc., or what are known as the water fea «- 

I5i 


-«-» < I I I 


TOWN, CITY OR. 

^VILLAGE trails and 

Z^^ZZ]5gj»~ PATHS 

'SMALL AND SINGLETRACK 

0/? =* ■ PRIVATE ROADS RAILWAY 

ROADS AND' 

BUILDINGS 

z tuw I I I 1 - ■ — 2a 


JJJ 


DOUBLE TRACK ELECTRIC 
RAIL WA Y RAIL WA Y 


TUNNEL 


/ 


L. 


\ 


BRIDGE 


ll li 

lllllil. 

"II 



FERRY 

j-miLlll 


FORD 

• >»f«IttalMfIl#l^ 


DAN7 


CUT 


rn r rn r 111111 1 

EMBANKMENT LEVEES STATE BOUND-COUNTY 

ARY LINE BOUNDARY 

LINE 

TOWNSHIP CITY OR TELEGRAPH UN FENCED 
LINE VILLAGE LINE ORTELEPHONE PROPERTY 

LINE LINE 


A^WVN 


DOOOOO 

$ 


o o o o o o o 


-X-X— x— 

W/REFENCE 


WORM OR STONE FENCE HEDGE 

RAIL FENCE 

SCHOOL MINE LIGHTHOUSE 
1 1 1 1 n 1 11 1111 rr rr B9 15 

P/CKETFENCE CHURCH CEMETARY SHAFT 




5 


LOCK CANAL 

Fig. 63. Culture Symbols for Maps 

152 






























































































MILITARY MAP READING AND MAKING 


Hires, and the symbols for these are shown in 
Fig. 64. 

In Fig. 65 you will find the symbols used to rep¬ 
resent vegetational features. These are especially 
useful to you if you are making a map for a forag¬ 
ing party. 



STREAMS INTERMITTENT SPRING 

STREAMS 



FALLS OR RAP/DS LAKE DRY LAKE 



FRESH MARSH SALT MARSH T/DAL FLATS 


Fig. 64. Water Features 

How to Make Maps—And now in regard to 
map-making. I have told you so much about how 
maps are made and how to read them that you 
should without much further help be able to make 

153 




















THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


such simple maps as you may be called upon for. 
All you need for map-making is a compass, a 
sheet of paper, pencil, eraser, ruler, and also a 
watch. 

As you start out to make your map mark your 


1 A- 

VV 

** 4% 

* A,* 

'' 4< -/r 

0 0 °(J c> 
O C 00 n Q 

0 

f "t 

ri»- -- - 

—/=\—- /A *"* 

EVERGREEN 

TREES 

OAK 

TREES 

W/Z.Z6W 

TREES 

CLEARED 

LAND 

i:i; it - - rrt; 

i |'l,r.7~ r!;' 

© 

a a & <£> 

\ 1 

J. 1 1 1, | -.. T.- !. j* ; 

L' ^® 

1 ; *: 1 , 

; 1 • 1 • © 

'in: 

& © *8 ® 

@ S> © *9 

O ® 

$ $ -I £ 
* i * 

-- !: J • J:! 11 1 

CULTIVATED LAND ORCHARD 

CORN 


'sir -s!,-s 

r\\r> 's)/* SI'S 

'sir* 'sl^ ^ 1 /^ 

TOBACCO 

Fig. 65. 


j }H( 

fill! 

VINEYARD 


_ww<*-»*■- - ••• 

__ ,\Uo . - . .%«///• 

-tilt- .^.'W,.... 

M<--. .... v,/ *. - - • • • >W/ * 

MEADOW 


Vegetational Features 


starting-point on the paper clearly, so that you 
or any one else can easily find it again, and look 
at your watch and mark down the time. You 
should then move steadily on until you reach some 
important feature that you must stop to map. 

154 
























MILITARY MAP READING AND MAKING 


Look at your watch again before you start to draw. 
You can estimate the heights of trees and hills 
with your eye. The distance that you walk you 
will be able to figure out, knowing that when 
you walk at a normal rate you walk about one 
mile in twenty minutes. 

For observation purposes you should make the 
map as large as possible and mark in all of the 
important culture, water and vegetational features, 
but remember to look at your watch every time 
you stop to draw them in, and just before you 
start on again, so that you can calculate the dis¬ 
tances you walk by the time taken to travel them. 

It is a fine idea to practice map-making some 
nice Sunday afternoon when you have nothing 
else to do, for in two hours’ actual practice you will 
be able to get more out of it than I could tell you 
if I were to talk for a week and you were simply 
to sit and listen. 

Where to Buy Contour Maps—If you want 
some contour maps of the kind shown in Fig. 60, 
write to the Director, United States Geological 
Survey, Washington, D. C., and ask for the Index 
Catalogue of Maps published for your state. You 
will then be able to send and get the map of that 
part of the quadrangle of the state that you live 
in, for the small sum of ten cents. 


155 


CHAPTER XI 


HOW TO BECOME AN OFFICER 

It is quite natural for you to want to be an of¬ 
ficer in the army, and there is no reason why you 
shouldn't become at least a non-commissioned of¬ 
ficer, if you are old enough to enlist, have a little 
training, and are bright and alert to opportunities. 
While there is a possible chance for you to get a 
commission and enter the army as a full-fledged 
officer, it would be better for you not to try it, 
for there are at this time so many men of experi¬ 
ence and ability who are applying for commissions, 
that unless you are an exceptional young man, 
your application will not be considered. 

If you are looking forward to being an officer 
the first thing that you must have or get is a high 
school education, the second is a military training, 
and the third is a special training that will fit you 
for some branch of the service. 

Why You Must Have a High School Educa¬ 
tion—The high school education is an absolute 


HOW TO BECOME AN OFFICER 


necessity, for without it your brain will not have 
developed sufficiently for you to take the special 
training which will fit you for the service. 

The Value of a Special Training —About the 
time of the Civil War the man who was a Jack-of- 
all-trades was in great demand. For instance, the 
doctor was at the same time a dentist, a surgeon 
and a veterinary surgeon all rolled into one. He 
could cure a case of measles, cut out a fellow’s 
gizzard, and set the off hind leg of a cow, all in 
the same breath, or at least he was supposed to 
be able to do these multifarious things. 

Since those days we have made great progress, 
and it has been proved over and over again that 
the Jack-of-all-trades is master of none. To-day 
we have doctors and surgeons, ear, nose, eye, and 
nerve specialists, as they are called, and each one 
has a certain job to do and no other, and because 
he has centered all of his time, energy and study 
upon this one thing he is an expert in it, and he 
is the kind of man you don’t feel afraid to go to 
to get fixed up. 

The same thing holds good in the army: we have 
reached the point where we must have officers who 
are highly trained in one branch of the service 
only, and this is where you can fit in. If you are 
old enough to enlist and have a high school edu¬ 
cation you can take up some particular end of 

157 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


army work that you like, and become a specialist 
in it in a short time. 

What You Can Do—As you will see by look¬ 
ing at Appendix F, there are several branches of 
the service, and you can take your pick, letting 
your own taste decide which branch you would 
like to join. On the other hand the branch known 
as the Signal Corps is the one in which you stand 
the best chance of becoming a non-commissioned 
officer, and in which you stand the best chance of 
receiving a commission later. This is because the 
Corps has grown so fast since our entry into the 
war that it has been impossible to supply officers 
enough to command the corps. Moreover, as you 
will see later on, you will be able to enlist in a 
section which will give you an opportunity to do 
the kind of work you want to. So you can’t do 
better than to make up your mind to join the 
Signal Corps. 

How You Can Get a Commission in the Army 

—Now you can become a non-commissioned officer 
in the Signal Corps in two ways. The first is to 
enlist as a private, and work your way up; the 
second is to take the examination given to men 
who expect to enlist as non-commissioned officers. 

If you go about it the first way, your high school 
education alone will be enough to get you into the 
service as a private. You will then be sent to one 

158 


HOW TO BECOME AN OFFICER 


of the instruction schools at Fort Wood, New York 
Harbor, or to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and 
you can there make a study of the thing that you 
are going to specialize in, at the government’s ex¬ 
pense. The following courses are given for you 
to choose from: wireless or radio telegraphy, teleg¬ 
raphy, military signaling, electricity, photography, 
and telephone and telegraph line construction. If 
you want to study aviation, which includes the 
construction and repair of airplane engines and 
planes, you will be sent to the aviation school at 
San Diego, California. Having completed the 
course at one of these schools you can then take 
an examination for the non-commissioned rank of 
Master Signal Electrician, First-class Sergeant, 
Sergeant, or Corporal, and be sure that you will 
pass it. 

If you get a First Sergeancy and go to France 
you can be almost sure of promotion and commis¬ 
sion, if you do your duty well, for there are no 
other conditions that make for such rapid ad¬ 
vancement as actual warfare. 

This is one way of getting a commission in the 
army, and you will never regret having gone about 
it in this way, for you will get a thorough military 
training, and at the same time learn some paying 
branch of engineering which you will put to good 
use in future life. 


159 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


The other way of getting a commission is first 
to take before enlisting the examination given for 
Master Signal Electrician, First Sergeant, Sergeant, 
or Corporal. To pass such an examination you 
must have a good knowledge of the following 
things: (i) electricity, (2) wireless, (3) telegra¬ 
phy, (4) photography and (5) gasolene engines— 
their operation and repair. A mere slight knowl¬ 
edge of each will not do. You must know consid¬ 
erable about the theory of these things and a great 
deal more about their practical side. Of course 
you must provide this training for yourself, and 
the best way that I know of to do this is to take 
them up at some good practical school. 

Nearly all of the branches of the Young Men’s 
Christian Association give such courses at reason¬ 
able prices. Their schoolroom is the shop, and 
you could not get a more practical grounding in 
these subjects than the Y. M. C. A. will give you. 
You should in a year or less of this kind of study 
be able to pass the examination you are going to 
take. 

After getting your non-com, it is only a question 
of time until you can work yourself up to the 
point where you can apply for a commission and 
get it. 

About the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps 
—There is still another branch of the Signal Corps 

160 


HOW TO BECOME AN OFFICER 


where fellows from nineteen up can receive a com¬ 
mission, and this is the Aviation Section. You can 
get a second lieutenancy as a flier, non-flier, or bal¬ 
loon observer, if you have had the proper training 
to enable you to pass the stiff examinations that 
are given in this branch. As a matter of fact, un¬ 
less you are going to college, or have actually de¬ 
signed or made gasolene engines, there is little use 
in applying for a commission, for, as I said before, 
there are so many men of high ability applying 
that you must prove that you can do things ex¬ 
ceptionally well for a fellow of your age, before 
your application will even be considered. Still if 
you think that you are qualified for a commission 
don’t hesitate to make application. 

If you contemplate applying for a commission 
and live in or near New York you should arrange 
first to take the course given for airplane mechanics 
by the West Side Y. M. C. A., at 318 West 57th 
Street, of that city. It is endorsed by the Aero 
Club of America and has the active cooperation 
of that club. The course will give you a thorough 
working knowledge of airplane construction, opera¬ 
tion, and repair, and will prove of the greatest 
service to you in getting a commission. I might 
add, however, that it is not a flying course. 

For further information about enlisting in the 
Signal Corps as a private or non-commissioned 

161 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


officer, write to the office of the Chief Signal Offi¬ 
cer of the U. S. Army, and ask for a pamphlet on 
the service. Information regarding courses at the 
Y. M. C. A. can be had by writing to the one 
located in your town. To apply for a commission 
in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps write 
to the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, for an ap¬ 
plication blank, or to the Adjutant General, U. S. 
Army, Washington, D. C. 

The above hints should be useful to you if you 
are very near military age now and want to enter 
the service right away. If you are younger, then 
your age will prevent you not only from becoming 
an officer, but from joining the army as well. But 
this does not mean that you should not prepare 
yourself to become an officer so that when you 
reach the right age you will have no difficulty in 
getting a commission. 

West Point as a Means of Getting a Commis¬ 
sion—In the first place you can go to a good mili¬ 
tary school until you graduate, when you will then 
have the equivalent of a high school education, 
together with a fine military training. You should 
then try to get an appointment to the United States 
Military Academy at West Point, New York. You 
must go about this as follows: Write to the Ad¬ 
jutant General and ask to have your name placed 
upon the register. The Senator of your state or 

162 


HOW TO BECOME AN OFFICER 


Congressman of your district will then recommend 
you for appointment, if he finds that you are 
worthy. If you are appointed you will be re¬ 
quired to take an examination in reading, writing, 
spelling, English grammar, English composition, 
English literature, arithmetic, algebra, plane geome¬ 
try, descriptive geometry, physical geography, geog¬ 
raphy, and history of the United States, and finally 
physiology and hygiene. 

When you pass this examination, which is based 
on the work done by the average student in four 
years at high school, you are admitted to West 
Point Military Academy. Upon graduation from 
the Academy you will be commissioned as second 
lieutenant in the army. This is the surest and best 
way of becoming an officer, and, indeed, it is the 
only way you can get a commission in time of peace. 



CHAPTER XII 


ON KEEPING YOUR EQUIPMENT IN 

SHAPE 

One of the things that you must pay particular 
attention to when you are a soldier is your uni¬ 
form and other equipment. A poor soldier can 
always be told by his untidy appearance, and it is 
your duty to see that you look your best at all 
times. As to equipment, it is often the means 
of saving the soldier’s life and it would indeed be 
foolish to let it fall into a state of ill-repair and 
so make it next to useless. 

What I have just said here applies to both the 
private and the officer, but inasmuch as their equip¬ 
ments are different, I will first tell you about that 
of the private. 

About Your Uniform—If you are a private you 
will be given two uniforms when you enlist in the 
army. One of these you will wear every day, and 
the other you will reserve for special occasions, 
such as company parades, musters, inspections, and 
the proud eyes of your lady friends. 

164 


ON KEEPING YOUR EQUIPMENT IN SHAPE 

How to Clean Your Uniform—Naturally your 
uniforms are bound to become soiled and wrinkled 
by constant wearing, and you must know how to 
keep them in repair. As a rule nearly every com¬ 
pany has a tailor who will take and fix your uniform 
up for you as good as new, and at small cost. If, 
however, a tailor is not handy you can inspect and 
fix up your uniform as follows: 

(1) With a needle and olive drab silk thread 
go over all the pieces of your uniform and sew 
any tears that you find, or buttons that are loose. 

(2) With a piece of rag soaked in gasolene, you 
can rub off any grease spots that are noticeable. 
If you can get no gasolene you can do a fair job 
by laying a piece of blotting paper over the spot 
and rubbing it with a hot flatiron. The grease will 
melt and be soaked up by the blotting paper. 
Should the spot refuse to come out, the chances 
are it is old paint, in which case if you scrape it 
gently with a dull knife, and then rub it with 
turpentine it will probably come off. 

On Washing Your Leggings—Wash your leg¬ 
gings with soap and cold water. The regular army 
soap used is known as H and H soap. If you can 
get no army soap Ivory, castile, or any other well- 
known non-injurious soap will do the trick. 

Get a hand brush with stiff bristles, and make a 
solution of one cake of soap in about one-half a 

165 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


bucket of cold water. Scrub your leggings well 
with this solution, rinse off with clean cold water, 
and dry them in the shade without wringing them 
out. Your canvas woven web belt can also be 
washed with the same solution. 

Another preparation used is known as Khaki 
Blanco, or whitening. To apply it you simply 
moisten a sponge, rub it on the Blanco cake, and 
then rub it lightly over the equipment to be cleaned. 
It acts very much the same as shoe whitening and 
you have only to wait until it dries. 

If your outfit has become muddy you should 
first allow it to dry, and then brush it carefully 
off before washing. 

About Your Shoes—Shoes are one of the most 
important parts of an infantryman’s equipment. 
If they gall or hurt him he is likely to be as useless 
as a cavalryman without his horse. Therefore it 
behooves you to learn how to take care of your 
shoes now, and save your feet trouble later on. 

In the first place you should see to it that the 
shoes issued to you are at least half a size larger 
than the kind you wear ordinarily and that when 
you walk in them they feel perfectly comfortable, 
because if mere walking hurts you, marching with 
a heavy pack will nearly kill you. 

Having made sure that they are large enough, 
see that there are no defective stitchings in them 

166 


ON KEEPING YOUR EQUIPMENT IN bHAPE 

which might cause them to rip or come apart un¬ 
expectedly. 

Next get two pairs of the heaviest woolen socks 
you can buy and never fail to have both pairs on 
when you are going on a march, be it long or short. 
This is the only way you can be reasonably sure 
that your feet won’t hurt you. Moreover, I have 
found that you must have at least two changes 
of socks and that at both the noon and evening 
halt you should change. If you have only the 
socks you are wearing on your feet, take them 
off and put them on again with the outer pair in¬ 
side and the inner pair outside. All of these pre¬ 
cautions may sound rather funny to you, but just 
believe me when I say you will have lots of time 
for regret but none to stop and rest your smart¬ 
ing, aching feet, if you don’t follow them. 

When in cantonment it is considered good form 
to have your shoes brightly polished, and while this 
is all right as long as you are doing no actual fight¬ 
ing, it is all wrong during a real campaign. It 
is argued first that the polish makes your shoes 
look neat and second that it preserves the leather. 
The first premise is undeniably true, but be it 
known that nearly all shoe polish has turpentine in 
it and that if there is any one thing that will ruin 
a pair of good shoes it is turpentine. Hence you 
can readily see that as long as you are fixed so that 

167 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


you have simply to ask for another pair of shoes 
to get them, polish is all right, but when you go 
over the top no one will expect your shoes to be pol¬ 
ished, and besides they will wear out a great deal 
quicker. 

The proper dressing for leather of all kinds is 
neatsfoot oil. The shoes should first be cleaned of 
all mud and dust, and should then be rubbed with 
neatsfoot oil until you think that the skin on your 
fingers is worn down to the bone. The shoes will 
then be extremely pliable and will be as water¬ 
proof as it is possible to make them. 

The Care of the Rifle—Next to shoes, in line 
of importance to the infantryman, is his rifle. As 
you know, your rifle is made up of a metal barrel, 
a metal receiver or part containing the firing mech¬ 
anism, and a wooden stock and forearm. 

Cleaning the Barrel—The barrel is the first thing 
you must learn to clean. Moisture will rust both 
the inside, or bore, of your rifle, and the outside. 
If this rust is allowed to break off of its own ac¬ 
cord the result will be a pitted appearance which 
not only causes the outside of the barrel to look 
bad, but seriously interferes with the shooting prop¬ 
erties of the bore. You can remove it from the 
outside of the barrel by rubbing it vigorously with 
a woolen rag moistened with kerosene oil. You 

168 


ON KEEPING YOUR EQUIPMENT IN SHAPE 


must then wipe all of the oil off and rub it to a 
high polish with 3-in-i oil or pure sperm oil. 

The cleaning of the bore of your rifle is another 
proposition entirely, for if you do not do it prop¬ 
erly you will ruin the accuracy with which the 
piece shoots forever. The first thing that you 
should do before trying to clean a rifle is to get a 
piece of bra:s and have stamped on it, Never clean 
a firearm from the muzzle, and you should rivet 
this on the front of your hat. I doubt if ever a 
firearm was spoiled by any other means than shov¬ 
ing a cleaning rod down the bore from the muzzle 
end. The reason is plain. The muzzle is rifled, 1 
and the cleaning rod blunts the rifling and so causes 
the bullet to leave the piece and fly crooked. You 
must always clean a firearm from the breech, for 
the rifling does not start directly at the breech but 
about two inches in front of it, leaving the firing- 
chamber or place where you slip the cartridge into 
the barrel smooth. 

Naturally, when the piece is fired particles of 
burnt powder are bound to remain in the bore and 
to lodge in the crevices or lands of the rifling. To 
remove this pozvder fouling, as it is called, dissolve 
in a quart of water all of the sal soda you can. 
Now run a small flannel patch into the slot pro- 

1 Spiral grooves cut in the bore of the barrel to make 
the bullet revolve rapidly and go straighten 

169 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


vided for this purpose in your cleaning rod, and 
dip the patch into the solution of sal soda. Start¬ 
ing the rod at the breech, run it up and down the 
bore several times, and do this with three or four 
patches or until the bore appears to be clean. Wipe 
it dry with clean patches and stand it in a dry, 
warm place. 

This treatment will remove all powder fouling, 
but the bore usually contains after firing what is 
known as metal fouling. This is caused by small 
particles of lead and copper with perhaps nickel 
from the bullet being smeared onto the rifling. 
You can make a preparation that will remove metal 
fouling as follows: 

To two tablespoonfuls of ammonium persulphate 
(finely powdered) mix one tablespoonful of am¬ 
monium carbonate. To this mixture add slowly 
a solution of one-half pint of ammonia in one- 
quarter pint of water, stirring the while until the 
ammonium salts are completely dissolved. The 
salts can be bought at any drug store. Let the 
solution stand for half an hour, and then plug 
up the breech of the barrel with a cork and pour 
it full of the cleaning solution. Loosely cork up 
the muzzle and stand the barrel in a corner on 
the breech for half an hour. Then remove the 
solution, wash thoroughly by pouring warm water 
through the barrel and dry absolutely. 

170 


ON KEEPING YOUR EQUIPMENT IN SHAPE 


Cleaning the Receiver —The receiver and firing 
mechanism can be cleaned the same as the outside 
of the barrel, but you should never put kerosene 
on the firing mechanism and leave it there long. 
The firing mechanism should be oiled with sperm 
oil. Kerosene oil is a good rust remover but a 
bad lubricant, and should never be used as such. 

Cleaning the Stock and Forearm —The stock 
and the forearm should be cleaned and polished 
with linseed oil, applied with a flannel and backed 
by plenty of elbow-grease. 

Cleaning the Bayonet —The blade of the bayo¬ 
net should never be scoured with sandpaper or 
coarse emery cloth. Wash it with the sal soda 
solution, and then wash it ofif with water and dry 
it thoroughly. Make a scouring paste of either 
fine emery dust and oil or rottenstone and oil. 
Scour the blade, wash, and wipe ofif, and then give 
it a thin coat of 3-in-i oil to keep it from rusting. 

The Mess-kit —The mess-kit is of a peculiar 
importance, for it is one of the most abused ar¬ 
ticles in the average soldier’s outfit, being used 
three times a day and seldom cleaned properly. It 
consists chiefly of a frying or meat pan with a lid 
and folding handle. The pan and lid should be 
well scoured after each meal with soap and boiling 
water, and should if possible be set in the sun to 
dry, for the sun is a great destroyer of disease 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


germs. Further, it is much pleasanter to eat from 
clean utensils than from dirty ones. 

You should scald your canteen once a day in 
hot weather by pouring boiling water containing 
a little sal soda into it, or once every two days 
in cool weather. It should then be washed clean, 
and when not in use it should be left uncorked. 
The belt and canvas covering should be scrubbed 
with H and H soap frequently, for they provide 
a fine breeding-place for germs. 

On Washing Sleeping-Blankets —If possible 
you should wash your sleeping-blankets once a 
week. Do not make the mistake of washing them, 
or any other woolen goods, such as underwear, 
sweater or socks, in hot water. Wash them in 
clear cold water, using Ivory or castile soap; do 
not wring them out, and hang them in a cool place 
to dry. If you do not follow these instructions 
your fine big woolen blankets will soon shrink to 
the size of a baby’s washcloth. 

About the Soldier’s Pack —The last piece of 
the private’s equipment that you should know about 
is the pack. The pack is made up of four parts 
and these are (i) the shoulder-straps, (2) the hav¬ 
ersack, (3) the carrier, and (4) the cartridge belt. 

The shoulder-straps, are made of web woven can¬ 
vas and slip over the arms and onto the shoulders 
when the pack is put on. You should keep them 

172 


ON KEEPING YOUR EQUIPMENT IN SHAPE 


clean and pliable, so they will not gall your 
shoulders. 

In the haversack is placed (i) a small can of 
food for use as an emergency ration only, (2) a 
knife, fork, and spoon, (3) tent pegs or pins for 
the shelter tent, (4) frying or meat pan, (5) first 
aid kit, (6) toilet articles such as soap, comb, 
washcloth, toothbrush and toothpaste, (7) extra 
underwear and socks, and (8) any special articles, 
such as field glasses and compass, that may be 
given the soldier to help him fulfill his duty. When 
the pack is made up the cartridge belt becomes a 
part of the pack and helps you to carry it. The 
hard things are placed so that when the pack is 
made they will be farthest away from the back. 
Soft things such as underwear, etc., are packed 
next to the back, where they form a pad which 
keeps the hard things from rubbing sores on your 
back. 

The last thing of all to be packed is your can¬ 
teen and entrenching tool, for you will need them 
most often. The canteen is hung on the cartridge 
belt while the entrenching tool is strapped to the 
back of the pack where it won’t interfere with you. 
I might add here that the entrenching tool is merely 
a stout spade with which the soldier scoops a hole 
that he can lie in when under fire or “dig himself 


1 73 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


The Officer and His Equipment —And now hav¬ 
ing covered the important features of the infantry¬ 
man’s outfit, let us learn a little about that of his 
officer. 

The first thing is his uniform. It is expected of 
an officer that he appear neat and natty at all times, 
and in order to do this his uniform must be of 
the most expensive material and must have an 
extra amount of care spent on it. While an officer 
receives far better pay than a private, he is ex¬ 
pected with this extra pay to dress himself in first- 
rate style, for an army is always judged by the 
appearance of its officers. 

You must therefore, when you become an officer, 
cultivate somewhat the methods of a gentleman 
of means, and you should be very generous with 
your money in the matter of clothes. While they 
should be of the best material possible, it is not 
necessary that you have a uniform for every day 
in the week, because this is indeed an extrava¬ 
gance. If you get two service uniforms and one 
full dress uniform you will be doing your full duty. 
But above all you must learn to keep them nice 
and neat. 

You should wash your leather belt on the rough 
side with castile soap, rubbing the lather into it 
well. It must then be dried carefully and the 
smooth side polished with russet leather polish. 

174 


ON KEEPING YOUR EQUIPMENT IN SHAPE 

Regarding your puttees and shoes, see that they 
always have the highest polish that can be given 
them. 

Your revolver will bear practically the same 
kind of treatment as described for the rifle; while 
the saber can be cleaned the same as the bayonet. 

And now just one thing more about an officer’s 
equipment. Many fellows have the idea that an 
officer has a moving van to carry around his per¬ 
sonal duffle, or equipment in. This is entirely 
wrong. He is lucky if he is able to carry an extra 
uniform and pair of boots, for one small truck is 
assigned to the thirty or more officers of a division. 
Consequently you will do well not to accept from 
any one, or give to any soldier, a trench periscope 
weighing fifty pounds or more, for it will simply 
be thrown away, if indeed it ever reaches the per¬ 
son it is intended for. Taking this lesson to heart, 
you will boil your equipment down to the lowest 
possible amount, and both you and your back 
whereon you carry your pack will be happier 
therefor. 


175 


CHAPTER XIII 


FIGHTING OVER THERE 

You have most likely noticed that the preceding 
chapters dealt almost entirely with the workings 
of certain parts and operations of the war machine 
known as the army, and that I have not told you 
anywhere in the book about how these parts worked 
when actually welded together or the practical end 
of fighting. 

However, all that I have told you about has a 
definite use and it is my purpose in this chapter 
to show you in a measure just how an army oper¬ 
ates, and just how fighting is carried on in France. 
I shall in a word try to nickel-plate you in the bath 
of war experience gained by Captain John Hod- 
der Williams, who fought valiantly for King and 
Country in the Canadian Regiment known as Prin¬ 
cess Pat’s, 1 and from whom I received my military 
training. 

1 Captain Williams was one of the few officers to survive 
from the ill-fated Regiment of Princess Pat which was, 
in the early part of the war, wiped out by the Germans. 

176 


FIGHTING OVER THERE 


Of course I cannot give you a complete account 
in a single chapter of the operations of the Allies 
as carried on in France, but I shall try to hit the 
high spots, and for the great mass of detail in 
between ask you to use your imagination. 

About Marching—If you have ever looked 
through a copy of the London Illustrated Weekly 
or the Picture Section of the New York Sunday 
Times, you have noticed that the French roads, 
over which the contending armies march, are hardly 
like a well paved speedway. The constant string 
of huge motor trucks, big field pieces, and heavily 
armored tanks, which pass over them day and 
night, have worn them down until in many places 
they are scarcely passable. These are the kinds of 
roads that you will have to march over when you 
go to the front, and you can see now that what I 
told you about your shoes in the last chapter is of 
the utmost importance. 

As a rule a division is the smallest part of 
an army that is moved from one place to another, 
although sometimes a brigade will be so moved. 
The reason for this is simple: a division is the 
smallest part of an army which can operate alone 
as an army in itself and which has all of the fight¬ 
ing arms necessary for the protection and con¬ 
venience of an army. 

The division will march in column of fours and 

177 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


will keep as far in to the right-hand side of the 
road as possible when marching on French soil. 
This makes it possible for the unceasing stream of 
supply trains, etc., which are moving in the op¬ 
posite direction, to pass unhindered. In England 
the traffic rule is just the opposite and the army 
will march in column of fours as far in to the left 
of the road as possible, all of which is shown in 
Fig. 66 A and B. 

When the command to march is first given, each 
man has on his pack and steps off. It is the cus¬ 
tom at the end of the first twenty minutes of march¬ 
ing to call a five-minute halt. This enables the 
men, who by this time have found out just where 
their packs gall them, to adjust them so they won't 
hurt. At the end of every fifty minutes a ten- 
minute halt is called and the command Rest is 
given. If you are a rookie you will walk around 
with your pack on your back, hands in your pock¬ 
ets, and pass the time of day with other rookies. 
If you know anything about the ways of an old 
soldier who has been seasoned by the wars you 
will drop your pack instantly the command Rest 
is given, lie down, and sleep for eight or nine min¬ 
utes if possible. In this way you will be able to 
march farther and still feel alive and kicking at 
the finish. 

When marching in column you should keep just 

178 


FIGHTING OVER THERE 


forty inches back of the man in the rank in front 
of you; no more nor less. You should get the habit 



t 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 

oooo 






oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
ooo o 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 
oooo 




0 

0 





Fig. 66. (A) Army Marching on French Road in 

Column of Fours to the Right. (B) Same 
Army Marching on English Road 
Keeping to Left 


of keeping this distance at all hazards and never 
ge\ farther behind. For see you now, a division 

179 



THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


marching in column of fours with forty-inch dis¬ 
tance between ranks is about a mile long. Let 
us suppose that you are in one of the rear ranks 
and that the men in front of you keep lagging be¬ 
hind more and more as they march. At the end 
of the fifty minutes, when Rest is called you will 
have fallen back a couple of hundred yards behind 
the front ranks of the division, and finally you will 
have to march the entire ten minutes to make these 
lost distances up. As a result you will get no rest 
at all, and at the end of a day of such marching you 
will feel as if you had been pulled through a knot¬ 
hole. 

On even a cool day you will get very thirsty 
on the march, but you should not drink except at 
the noon halt, and then but very little, or else you 
will feel as heavy as a water-soaked log. If you 
feel that you must drink moisten your mouth and 
then spit the water out. A small, clean round 
pebble placed in the mouth will cause your saliva 
to flow freely and you will not feel the need for 
water. 

When on a long march it used to be the custom 
in the United States Army to let the men march at 
route step, or just as they pleased. But it has been 
found that men march easier and better at the regu¬ 
lar quick time step and so route step has been done 
away with. In order to help the men keep step 

180 


FIGHTING OVER THERE 


they are encouraged in every possible way to sing 
snappy marching songs, for this also takes their 
minds away from their tired feet. The non-coms 
also help the men who are not as strong as the 
others and who find their loads too heavy, by re¬ 
lieving them of a part of it and cheering them along. 
Otherwise they would drop out of the ranks, and 
this must be prevented if there is any way to do it. 

The Advance Guard —An advance guard is al¬ 
ways sent out before an advancing army, to gain 
information as to the enemy's position. The ad¬ 
vance guard may consist of a regiment, company, 
platoon, or squad, depending on the size of the 
army for which it is acting. The guard places it¬ 
self in a triangular formation and will march sev¬ 
eral thousand yards ahead of the main body of 
the army, as shown in Fig. 67. From this position 
it is able to discover better routes, ambuscades, 
and the position and size of enemy forces, all of 
which it signals back to the main body. An ad¬ 
vance guard should always keep a uniform dis¬ 
tance in advance of the army and should never 
get out of range of communication. A similar 
rear guard protects the army from surprise from 
the rear. 

The Trenches —In the olden days of warfare 
the trenches were dug to safeguard the army from 
infantry and cannon fire. Those were the days 

181 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 

before the high-power rifle and explosive shell 
were invented and the trench was a very shallow, 
very wide, and very crude affair. With the in¬ 
vention of larger field pieces which threw a heavy 
shell for miles, trenches were deepened and nar¬ 
rowed, and dugouts were provided. As you know, 



Fig. 67. How the Advance Guard Proceeds 
Ahead of the Army 

a dugout is simply a cave which opens into a trench. 

Then came what is known as the shrapnel shell. 
This is shot from a cannon like any other shell, 
but it is filled with a high explosive and several 
hundred bullets. It is timed to explode over a 
certain spot, when it blows a veritable hail of 
bullets downward upon the earth which will kill 
everything in a circle of one hundred yards diame- 

182 






FIGHTING OVER THERE 


ter—see Fig. 68. This new shell made the old- 
style trench doubly dangerous, for it was possible to 
burst a shell over it and wipe out a whole section, 
and the shrapnel would penetrate even down into 
the dugouts. 

So the trenches were made still deeper and nar- 



Fig 68. How a Shrapnel Shell Rains a Cone of 
Fire Upon a Trench as it Bursts 

rower and the dugouts were dug down to a depth 
of twenty feet or more under the ground, their 
roofs being armored with steel heavy enough to 
keep shrapnel out. A cross-section of a typical 
trench is shown in Fig. 69. The firing step is 
necessary for observation and rifle fire on account 
of the depth of the trench. It is just at the right 

183 






THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 

height so that a soldier can stand upon it and fire 
over the top. 

In France the trenches are laid out as shown 
in Fig. 70. First of all are the first line trenches. 
In these are the men who are on the actual firing 
line, who are first to go over the top in an attack 

BRRB W/R6 



Fig. 69. Cross-Section Through Typical Trench 

and Dugout 

upon the enemy, and likewise are first to be at¬ 
tacked when the Germans attack. Back of these 
are the second line or support trenches. In these 
the support troops stay. Their purpose is to aid 
the first line trenches in case of attack upon or 
from the Germans. So that they can reach the 
first line trenches safely and quickly, communica- 

184 


















GERMAN LINES 
r B!G FIELD PIECES 

Cy if, l|l >|l ‘I' *t' *»' ‘I 1 1* ‘1’ 

RESERVE 
TRENCH 

SUPPORT 
(TRENCH 



F/RST 
LINE 
TRENCH 

w 


SUPPORT 
TRENCH 


RESERVE 
TRENCH 

-r «b ||| lb iji If 

C BIG FIELD PIECES 

ALLIES' TRENCHES 



fl» */» //» ij> 


Fig. 70. How the Trenches of the Opposing 
Armies are Laid Out 

185 










THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


tion trenches are cut between the first and second 
line, as shown in the figure. The reserve trenches 
make up the third line. The reserve troops stay 
in these trenches and are called upon by the first 
and second line only in case of dire necessity. 
Communication trenches also connect the second 
and third lines. 

Of course you must understand that my draw¬ 
ings of the trenches are much too nice, for in 
France they dig them from one old shell hole to 
another and naturally they are not laid out along 
the straight lines shown in the drawing. 

To stop the Germans, barbed wire entanglements 
are erected all along in front of the trenches. This 
is woven in and out so many times that even shrap¬ 
nel fire cannot destroy it so that troops can pass 
through. Indeed the only way to get through it is 
to cut it (each soldier carries a pair of snipers for 
this purpose) or else it is crushed down to the earth 
by means of the huge tanks that we have heard 
so much about lately. 

Further, the ground in front of the trenches looks 
like the old ocean on a rough day, with thousands 
of volcano craters thrown in for good measure. It 
is simply a combination of a mess of shell holes 
ten or fifteen feet deep and twenty or thirty feet 
in diameter with huge waves of dirt thrown up 
between by the big shells. 

186 


FIGHTING OVER THERE 


Over the Top —And now that you have a clear 
idea of the trenches and ground about them I will 
tell you how a typical attack is conducted. The 
figure shows the first, second, and third line trenches 
of both the Allies and the Germans. Back of the 
third line trenches of the Allies, in well-placed and 
protected positions, is the heavy artillery. Now 
these guns are so big and throw so explosive a shell 
that when trained on a trench they will completely 
blow it away; but they will, however, not pene¬ 
trate down into a well-constructed dugout. 

For days before the attack on Fritz—as the 
English call the Germans—is to start, the big guns 
far to the rear of the Allied trenches keep up an 
incessant shell fire or barrage on the first line, 
support and reserve trenches of the Germans. 
When this fire starts, Fritz knows enough to duck 
down into his dugout and there he stays safe and 
snug while the shells blow his trench to pieces about 
his ears. This heavy fire is known as watering. 

Finally the commander in charge of the attack 
decides that the German trenches are so badly dam¬ 
aged as to make an attack possible, and the hour 
at which it will begin is passed down the lines. As 
a rule the time set for such an attack is in the 
early hours of the morning, say between four and 
five o’clock, for there is still enough darkness to 
hide the attacking party from infantry and machine 

187 



THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


gun fire, and yet by the time the trench has been 
captured it will be light enough for the men to see 
what they are doing. 

If you land in the German trenches at night it 
is impossible to see what either you or they are 
doing, and the fact that everything is strange doesn’t 
make you feel any the more at home. To offset 
this, maps of the German trenches are often made 
from airplanes and from these maps similar 
trenches are dug by the Allies and the soldiers are 
made thoroughly acquainted with them. But in¬ 
asmuch as these duplicate or replica trenches are 
also crude, while they serve their purpose in a 
measure, yet they are not all that could be wished 
for. As a consequence, it is far better to find your¬ 
self fighting in Fritz’s trench at dawn than at 
dusk. 

Finally the hour for the attack arrives, the signal 
is given, and the men go over the top of their 
trenches one after the other by means of short 
ladders. The barb wire in front of their own 
trenches they have cut the night before and so 
they find no trouble in getting started. 

As they go over the top, the heavy artillery of the 
Allies drops a curtain of shell fire just in front of 
them and this protects them from any counter at¬ 
tack by the Germans. As they advance slowly over 
the very rough, and very likely muddy, ground this 

188 


FIGHTING OVER THERE 


curtain of fire is advanced—see Fig. 71. Over 
ground such as this there is no such thing as a dash¬ 
ing charge and a snail’s pace must be maintained so 
that the soldiers will not be exhausted when they 
reach the German trenches and need their strength 
most. The attacking party continues its slow ad¬ 
vance and the curtain advances with it. 


B/G GUNS 



PATH OP TRAJECTORY 
OF PROJECTILES 



BURSTING 

v SHELLS 


A 

■Ill 


s^S 




SOLDIERS ADVANCING 
BEHIND BARRAGE OR 
CURTAIN FIRE 


Fig. 71. Curtain Fire 


Finally the curtain passes over the first line 
trench, and a couple of minutes later the attacking 
party strikes the trench. I say trench but as a mat¬ 
ter of fact it is now only a mass of debris or rubbish 
and has long since been blown away. Theoretically 
the attacking party should strike the trench as a 
solid wave, every man at the same instant, and so 
be able to strike a heavy blow the full length of 
the trench. As a matter of fact, due to the uneven¬ 
ness of the ground, the attacking party strikes 
the trench a handful here and a handful there. 
They are met by Fritz, who has come out of his 

189 




THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


dugout the instant the barrage passed over him, 
and it is then that they get an opportunity to do 
some bayonet work. Then woe be unto him who 
has not practiced faithfully during his training, for 
there is but one chance for you to run your bayo¬ 
net into Fritz, and if you don't do it first he will. 

When the first trench has been taken the at¬ 
tacking party moves on to the support trench and 
takes this under cover of barrage in a like man¬ 
ner. In the meantime the Allies’ support, which 
follows the attacking party, arrives at Fritz’s first 
line trench and proceeds to mop up as follows: 

Each soldier is outfitted with a bag of bombs. 
Suppose you are one of them. You go to the near¬ 
est dugout entrance and, using your best German, 
call down and invite any Boches within to come 
out and surrender. If there are any in there they 
will usually come out peaceably; but if they should 
refuse, you throw down a handful of bombs, when 
they will come out anyway but not in such good 
shape as if they had followed your first invitation. 
Thus is the gentle art of mopping up carried on 
by the support. 

When the attacking party has captured the last 
trench it was commanded to take, it immediately 
starts to dig in. Since the trench has practically 
been destroyed, it is necessary for them to work 
fast, for they can rest assured that despite the heavy 

190 


FIGHTING OVER THERE 


watering, Fritz’s reserves will soon be at them 
tooth and nail, and then they will need all of the 
protection they can get if they are to hold the 
trench. So great is the need of hurried digging 
that many officers have abandoned their swords for 
the more useful entrenching spade. 

' From the above account of a typical attack, I 
think you will be able to get a fair idea of how 
modern fighting is conducted, and just what it 
means when you read that another 600 yards of 
trenches were captured. 


CHAPTER XIV 


WAR INFORMATION AND ADVICE 
APPENDIX A 

First Aid to the Wounded —One of the worst 

things that I can think of is having to sit and watch 
a wounded comrade suffer, and not be able to help 
him because you don’t know the first principles of 
first aid. Of course you can’t hope to become as 
proficient as a surgeon, but you can learn a few 
of the simple things that have saved many a man’s 
life. 

The most useful thing that your first-aid packet 
contains is a roll of antiseptic bandage. This is 
done up air-tight and up to the time it is opened 
will be absolutely clean and free from germs. For 
this reason you should handle the bandage as lit¬ 
tle as possible and see to it that your hands are as 
clean as you can get them in a hurry. 

Wounds in the sides, abdomen and chest you 
cannot aid except by washing them off with clean 
water and tying a pad of bandage over them to 
keep out dirt and prevent infection from setting in. 

192 


WAR INFORMATION AND ADVICE 


Flesh wounds, such as tears and lacerations from 
shrapnel, should be washed clean and bandaged 

well. 

If a wound bleeds profusely, the blood coming 
forth in little gushes, it is a sure sign that an artery 
has been cut, and that the injured man may die 
from loss of blood if the bleeding is not stopped 

TOURNIQUET 
ABOVE BANDAGE 



Fig. 72. How the Tourniquet is Used to Stop a 

Bleeding Artery 

instantly. If such a wound is on the arm or leg 
you should wash it clean and tie a bandage over 
it. Then take a strip of clothing or other strong 
cloth and tie it loosely above the wound. Slip a 
stout stick, bayonet, or other instrument into this 
loop of cloth and twist it around and around until 
the strip has become tight enough to stop the 
bleeding. Such an arrangement is called a tourni¬ 
quet, and it is shown in Fig. 72. 

In the case of a Hone broken or splintered by 

193 







THE BOYS' MILITARY MANUAL 


shrapnel or rifle bullets you should wash the wound 
and bind a pad of bandage over it firmly. Then cut 



Fig. 73. How the Arm is Fixed in Splints 
When the Bone is Broken 

and smooth four flat sticks about two feet long, 
two inches wide and one-half inch thick. Wrap 


Fig. 74. How the Head is Bandaged 

the broken spot tightly with clothing for a foot 
above and below the wound and then tie or strap 
the sticks firmly around the arm or leg, as the 

194 
















WAR INFORMATION AND ADVICE 

case may be. It should then be tied to the body 
or to the other leg. The sticks are called splints 



Fig. 75. (A) Carrying a Wounded Man Who is 

Unconscious 

(B) Carrying a Wounded Man Who is Still 

Conscious 

and their purpose is to prevent the jagged ends of 
the broken bone from tearing the flesh around 
them. The operation is shown in Fig. 73. 

195 








THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Wounds in the head and face are bandaged as 
shown in Fig. 74, after first having been washed 
clean. 

In all cases you should give the sufferer your 
prompt attention and should then see that he is 
treated by a surgeon as quickly as possible. If the 
wounded man is lying in a position where he is 
likely to be wounded again, you should carry him 
to a place of safety. There are two ways of doing 
this. If the patient is conscious, have him put his 
arms around your neck from behind, and his legs 
around your waist. You can then hold his legs 
m your arms as shown at Fig. 75 B and walk very 
easily. If the patient is unconscious, stoop down 
and put his left arm around your neck and hold 
it there with your right hand. Drag him to a sit¬ 
ting position, when you can put your left hand 
around his left leg and lift and carry him as shown 
at A. 


APPENDIX B 

About Your Health—As you may well imagine, 
a fellow has to be pretty well hardened to stand 
the hardships of fighting, but every American is 
a natural-born camper and finds army life a great 
deal easier than he had at first expected. There 
is one thing, however, that few of us ever think 

196 


WAR INFORMATION AND ADVICE 


about, chiefly because we have so much of it, and 
that is our health. Camp life makes for health 
but there are some things that you must do for 
yourself, and these are: (i) Bathe as often as 
possible. Cleanliness in camp is hard to maintain 
but it is worth it. (2) Keep your clothes as clean 
as possible. Wash them often. (3) Wash your 
teeth twice a day—morning and night. If you 
don’t you will have howling toothaches, and an army 
dentist is not a pleasant thing. (4) Keep your 
bowels open or you will surely get sick, and army 
doctors think that Epsom salts are the natural 
food for the sick soldier. (5) In summer have 
your head shaved. You will be troubled somewhat 
by flies but there are other insects that will other¬ 
wise get into your hair that are even worse. (6) 
When you get a cold, take plenty of quinine. And 
(7) when you feel sick report to the doctor and 
he will fix you up. 


APPENDIX C 

Hints on Roughing It—A great many fellows 
have the idea that to be a good fighter you must 
rough it. My idea is just the opposite, and I have 
found that the more you try to smooth things 
the better off you will be. 

197 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


When making your bed remember that the soft 
springy tips of pine boughs make one of the most 
fragrant mattresses possible to sleep on. Before 
you turn in, see that your bed is comfortable, for 
if you find it the least bit uncomfortable then, in 
the early hours of the morning it will become un¬ 
bearable. You should always sleep with as much 
cover under you as you have over you and you 
will never be cold. 

I mention these facts above all others because, 
of all the hardships that mortal man can undergo, 
a poor night’s sleep, with a hard day’s work ahead, 
is the most discouraging. 


APPENDIX D 

On Keeping Your Temper —If you will just re¬ 
member when things go wrong—as they are bound 
to do—that losing your temper won’t better them, 
you will be doing yourself and everybody else a 
favor. Further, you must always treat your com¬ 
missioned and non-commissioned officers with the 
courtesy and respect that their rank calls for. Los¬ 
ing your temper with them, no matter what the 
cause may be, is always a losing deal. 


198 


WAR INFORMATION AND ADVICE 


APPENDIX E 

Bravery and Truthfulness at All Times—If you 

think that a brave man is one who never gets afraid 
you are away off the track. A man who never fears 
anything is not so brave as he is foolish. A really 
brave man will be just as afraid as any one else 
but he will not let his fear get the best of him and 
make him unable to think, move, or speak. Just be¬ 
cause your mind becomes afraid is no reason why 
you should let your body flunk the work at hand, 
be it ever so dangerous. 

In regard to truthfulness, possibly you have 
found that you can lie in ordinary life and never 
get caught. Take my advice and never lie in the 
army unless you are looking forward to a life on 
some other earth than this, where army regulations 
and punishments are unknown. Your life and 
safety and the lives and safety of others depend 
on the absolute truth, and you should always tell 
it at all times, no matter how disagreeable it is. 


APPENDIX F 

More About Insignia—In addition to the braid 
on an officer’s sleeve told about on page 28 each 

199 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 

officer wears a black and gold hatcord, with gold 
acorns on the tips. 

The branch of service that enlisted men belong 
to can be told from their hat cords as the following 
table shows: 


f Branch of service 

Color of hat cord 

Insignia 

Infantry- 

Cavalry 

Artillery 

Ordnance corps 
Signal corps 

Light blue 

Y ellow 

Scarlet 

Black and scarlet 
Orange and white 

Two rifles crossed 

Two swords crossed 
Two cannon crossed 
Two bombs and flame 
Two signal flags 
crossed, with torch 

Engineering corps 
Quartermasters 
corps 

Red and white 
Buff 

Castle with two turrets 
Wheel under an eagle 
with crossed key and 
sword 

Medical corps 

Maroon 

A wand surmounted by 
wings and with two 
serpents twined about 
it. 


Do not make the common mistake of thinking 
that every soldier who wears leather putties is an 
officer. Privates in many of the branches, par¬ 
ticularly the cavalry, also wear them. 

APPENDIX G 

War Words, Terms, and Phrases You Should 
Know the Meaning Of— 

200 













WAR INFORMATION AND ADVICE 

Barbed Wire —Wire with barbs or sharp points 
sticking from it used for entanglements. Almost 
impossible to get through. 

Barrage —A heavy fire from the big guns con¬ 
centrated on a certain portion of the enemy’s 
trenches. 

Bay —An indentation of a trench built so that an 
attacking party will be unable to strike the full 
length of the trench a heavy blow at the same 
moment and to lessen the shocking force of bursting 
shells. 

Canteen —(i) The container used by the soldier 
to carry water in; (2) a place where soldiers are 
sold refreshments—often spelled cantine. 

Caterpillar —A powerful gasolene vehicle run¬ 
ning on large flat belts instead of wheels, which will 
crawl up a tree if necessary. It is used to drag the 
big guns into position. 

Curtain Fire —A heavy fire behind which troops 
are advanced to the attack. 

Dugout —A cave twenty to thirty feet below the 
ground, opening into a trench. It usually has sev¬ 
eral entrances. 

Field Pieces —Any cannon or piece of artillery 
mounted on wheels for field use. 

Fire Trench —The first line trench from which 
rifle fire on the enemy’s trenches is maintained. 

Flare Pistol —A pistol shooting what is known as 

201 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


a flare or bomb which bursts, throwing a bright 
light on the ground in front of the trenches. Used 
to discover raiding parties of the enemy. 

Gas —A poisonous, heavy gas drifted into the 
enemy’s trenches to suffocate them. The gas drifts 
before the wind and settles to the bottom of the 
trenches. Usually used just before an attack. 

Gas Mask —A mask worn over the face to protect 
the soldier from gas attacks. It has mica eyeholes 
and is treated with chemicals which purify the air 
so it can be breathed safely. 

Housewife —A collectidn of needles, thread and 
buttons with which the soldier mends his clothes. 

Liquid Fire —A burning fuel, such as gasolene, 
sprayed by German soldiers upon Allied soldiers 
to burn them to death. The gasolene or fuel is 
carried in a tank on the back from which it is 
forced out of a hose by compressed air, when it 
catches on fire. 

Machine Gun —A light rifle having a large maga¬ 
zine from which a volley of shots can be fired 
rapidly without reloading. It is cooled with water. 
Very effective for stopping infantry and cavalry. 
The Lezvis Automatic Rifle, which is air cooled, 
invented by an American of that name, is largely 
used in France. It shoots 47 shots without re¬ 
loading, the cartridges being held in a horizontal, 
circular, revolving magazine or pan. 


202 


WAR INFORMATION AND ADVICE 


Mills Bomb —A bomb about the size of a baseball 
thrown by hand into the German trenches. Very 
deadly. 

Mine —A tunnel dug secretly under the earth 
until it just reaches the enemy’s trench. A large 
quantity of high-explosive is then placed in it and 
fired, causing great damage. 

Mortar —A short cannon of extra large bore 
shooting a bomb filled with high-explosive. Very 
effective at short range. 

Outpost —A guard placed at some distance from 
an encamped army to prevent surprise attacks. 

Periscope —A device hy which you can look over 
the top of a trench without being shot at. Prac¬ 
tically the same as that on a submarine. 

Sentinel —A soldier placed on guard to prevent 
attack by giving warning when such impends. 

Slacker —A fellow of military age without 
gumption and courage enough to serve his country 
in the army. Don’t be one. 

Sniper —An expert rifleman who is detailed to 
pick off enemy soldiers, one by one, from a sheltered 
position. 

Strafe —The German word for punish. Largely 
used by the English. 

Star Bomb —A bomb shot from a cannon for 
illumination at night. Similar to a flare. 

203 


THE BOYS’ MILITARY MANUAL 


Szvank —English slang for pep. 

Tank —A huge caterpillar, enclosed and armored 
heavily, carrying light guns. It stops at nothing, 
and nothing can stop it. It is an English invention. 


204 


INDEX 


About face, 40 
Action, bolt, 86 
Aim, how to, 131 
Armories, 13 
Arm signals, 103-112 
ARMY: 

A mistaken idea of, 22 
As it really is, 23 
Enlisted men in, 30 
Field, 25 
French, 5 
German, 6 

How war changes needs 
of, 6 

National, 15 
Obedience in, 31 
Regular, 15 

Regulation piece of, 85 
Spirit of, 30 
Army corps, about, 28 
Assemble march, 60, 84 
Assemble to the right, 60 
(or left) march, 60 
As skirmishers guide right 
(or left or center) 
march, 81, 82 
As skirmishers march, 61 
At ease, 43 

Attention, how to stand at, 

37 1 

Aviation Section of Signal 
Corps, 161 

Backward march, 42 
Barbed wire, 200 


Barrage, 201 

Battalion, commanded by 
major, 25 
Bay, 202 
BAYONET: 

Description of, 86 

Fighting, first principles 

of, 135 

Parts of body where 
thrusts are effective, 
137 

Practice, 138 

Blankets, on washing, 172 
Bolt action, 86 
Bordentown Military Acad¬ 
emy, 11 
Bowie, Jim, 1 

Boys in Confederate Army, 

7 

Brains of army, 23 
Brigade, commanded by 
brigadier-general, 25 
Brigades, divisional, 25 
Brigadier-general, 25 
Butt, heel and toe of, 88 
By the right (or left) flank 
march, 42 

Cadet corps, 12 
CAMPAIGN: 

Military, 139 

Trapping, 139 
Canteen, 201 

Captain, company com¬ 
mander, 25 


205 


INDEX 


Caterpillar, 202 
Change step march, 43 
Close ranks march, 59 
CODE: 

Dots and dashes of Gen¬ 
eral Service, 122 
General Service, 118 
International Morse (see 
General Service ) 
Two-arm Semaphore, 114, 
115 

Colleges, State, 11 
Colonel, commander of reg¬ 
iment, 25 

Column right (or left) 
march, 74 
COMMANDS: 

About giving, 38 
Of execution, 38 
Preparatory, 38 
COMMISSION: 

How you can get a, 29, 
159 

West Point, 163 
Y. M. C. A. courses as an 
aid to getting a, 163 
Commissioned officers, 30 
COMPANY: 

Commanded by captain, 

25 

Corporal, non- commis¬ 
sioned officer, 25 
Divisions, 25 
Duties of officers, 64 
How formed, 66 
Lieutenant, officer in, 25 
Movements, 69 
Officers, 25, 64 
Platoon, division of, 26 
Right (or left) march, 69 
School of, 63 


COMPANY: 

Sergeant, non- commis¬ 
sioned officer, 25 
Squads in, 26 

COMPULSORY MILI¬ 
TARY TRAINING: 
How it helps you, 7 
Slater Law, 14 
Confederate Army, boys in, 
7 

Contour maps, 142, 143, 155 
Corporal, non-commis¬ 
sioned officer, 26 
CORPS: 

About army, 28 
Cadet, 12 
Engineer, 28 
Hospital, 29 

How to get commission 
in, 29 

' Medical, 29 
Signal, 29 
Some other, 29 
Count off, 51 
COUNTRY: 

How it protects you, 3 
How to serve best, 8 
Why you must fight for, 
4 

Covering, 51 

Crack shot, why you should 
become one, 124 
Crockett, 2 
Curtain fire, 202 


Deploy, 49 

Direction, how to know, 
149, 150 

Distance, estimating, 134, 
135 


206 


INDEX 


Division, commanded by 
major-general, 25 
Divisional brigade, 25 
Do, what you can, 158 
Double time march, 41 
DRILLS: 

How to practice, 45 
Value of, 48 
Dugout, 183, 184, 201 

Educated, why an officer 
must be, 6 
Engineer corps, 28 
England, Mistress of the 
Seas, -5 

Enlisted men, 30 
Enlistment period, State 
Guard, 13 

Equipment of an officer, 174 
Examination, physical, how 
to pass, 15 

Eyes right (or left), 44 

Fall in, 66 
FIELD ARMY: 
Commanded by lieuten¬ 
ant-general, 25 
Its officers, 25 
Field pieces, 201 
Fight, why you must, 4 
File, what it is, 48 
Fire curtain, 189 
Fire, how to, 132 
Fire trench, 201 
First aid to wounded, 192 
Fix bayonet, 100 
Flags, how to signal with, 
112 

Flank, right and left, 51 
Flare pistol, 201 
Flinching, 134 


Forming a squad, 50 
Forward march, 40 
France, army of, q 
Front, 53 

Gas, 202 
Gas mask, 202 
General Staff, 23 
Germany, army of, 5 
Germans, how a trained 
army stopped the, 5 
Grade, how to tell an of¬ 
ficer’s, 27 
GUARD: 

Advance, 181 
Home, 12 
National, 12 
State, 13 

Half step march, 42 
Halt, 43 

Hand salute, 45 
High school education, why 
you must have, 156 
Head, how bandaged, 194 
Headquarters, 25 
Health, about your, 196 
Hero of olden days, the, 2 
Home Guard, 12 
Housewife, 202 

Independence, War of, 1 
Insignia of non-commis¬ 
sioned officers, 66 
Inspection arms, 99 

Junior Plattsburg Camp, 11 

Kidd, William, 1 
Kit, mess, 171 

Kneeling firing position, 125 


207 


INDEX 


Left face, 39 
Left shoulder arms, 97 
Lieutenant, officer of a com¬ 
pany, 25 

Lieutenant-general, com¬ 
mander of field army, 

. 2 5 

Liquid fire, 202 
Local organizations, 12 


Machine gun, 202 
Major, commander of bat¬ 
talion, 25 

Major-general, commander 
of division, 25 
Make-up of a squad, 48 
MAP MAKING: 

Culture symbols, 152 
Vegetational symbols, 155 
Water symbols, 153 
MAPS: 

Contour, 142 
Hatchure, 141, 150 
How to tell direction, 
149-iSO 

How to tell scale, 149 
Kinds in military use, 141 
Learning to read, 142 
'Profile, 144 

Symbols used in making, 
I5I-I54 

Value to an army, 139, 
148 

Where to buy, 155 
Marching, about, 177-181 
Marion, 2 

Mark time march, 42 
Mess kit, 171 

Military Academy, Borden- 
town, 11 


Military Academy, New 
York, 11 

Military Academy, St. 
John’s, 11 

Military Institute, Virginia, 
11 

Military schools, about, 10 
MILITARY TRAINING: 
High Schools, 14 
Proper, 6 
Regular Army, 15 
Slater Law, 14 
State Colleges, 11 
State Guard, j } 

West Point, 15 
Mills bomb, 202 
Mine, 203 

Mistress of the Seas, Eng¬ 
land, 5 
Mortar, 204 
MOVEMENTS: 

Company, 69 

Company similar to 
Squad, 63 

How to practice, 45 

National Army, 15 
National Guard, 12 
National organizations, 15 
Navy, England’s, 5 
Need of officers, 6 
New York Military Acad¬ 
emy, 11 

Non-commissioned officers, 
26, 30, 66 

Obedience in army, 31 
OFFICERS: 

Commissioned, 30 
Equipment, 174 
Field army, 26 


208 


INDEX 


OFFICERS: 

How to care for equip¬ 
ment, 174 

How to tell grade, 27 
Must be educated, 6 
Our need of, 6 
On right (or left) into line 
march, 77 

Open ranks march, 59 
Order arms, 90, 93 
ORGANIZATIONS: 

Local, 12 
National, 15 
State, 12 
Outpost, 203 
Over the top, 187 

Pack, care of, 172 
Parade rest, 43, 93 
Peep sight, how to adjust, 
130 

Periscope, 203 
Perry, 2 

Physical examination, how 
to pass, 15-19 
PIECE: 

Barrel, 88 
Bolt, 87 

Bolt and cocking-piece, 88 
Bullet, jacket for, 88 
Butt, 88 
Cartridge, 88 
Cocking-piece, 87 
Ejector, 87 
Firing-pin, 87 
Forearm, 88 

How to hold for bayonet 
fighting, 136 

How loaded and fired, 86- 

88 

Important parts of, 88 


PIECE: 

Magazine, 87 
Magazine-spring, 87 
Mainspring, 87 
Rear sight, 128 
Regulation army, 85 
Sear, 87 
Trigger of, 87 
Pistol shooting, 133 
Platoons column right (or 
left) march, 77 
Platoons right (or left) 
march, 72 

Platoon of squads, 26 
Port arms, 92 
Present arms, 90 
Princess Pat’s Regiment, 
176 

Profile map, how to draw, 
146 

Prone firing position, 125 

Quick time march, 41 

Ranks, front and rear, 48 
Regiment, commanded by 
colonel, 25 

Regular Army, physical ex¬ 
amination, 15-19 
Rest, 43 

Revolver shooting, 133 
RIFLE: 

Cleaning, 168-171 
Firing positions, 125 
How to load and fire, 86 
Metal fouling, 170 
Parts of (see Piece ) 
Powder fouling, 169 
Salute, 99 

U. S. Magazine Model 

1903, 85 

Right (or left) dress, 52 


209 


INDEX 


Right face, 38 
Right (or left) front into 
line march, 79 
Right (or left) half face, 39 
Right (or left) oblique 
march, 53 

Right shoulder arms, 94 
Right (or left) step march, 
42 

Right (or left) turn march, 

58 , 74 

Roughing it, hints on, 198 

Scale of maps, how to tell, 
149 

Schoolboys, compulsory 
military training for, 
7,8 _ 

Schools, military, 10 
Semaphore, Two-arm Code, 
JI 3 

Sentinel, 203 

Sergeant, non-commissioned 
officer, 25 

Shooting, pistol and re¬ 
volver, 133 
Shrapnel, 183 
SIGHT: 

Battle, 130 
Bead, 131 
Closed, 130 
How to, 131 
Peep, 130 
Rear, 128 

SIGNAL CORPS: 

Aviation Section, 29 
Described, 29 
How to get a commission 
in, 158 
Radio, 29 
Telegraph, 29 


SIGNALING: 

Arm, 103 
Sound, 102, 122 
Visual, 102 
SIGNALS: 

Arm, 103 
Flag, 112 

General Service Code, 
118, 119 

Two-arm Semaphore 
Code, 113 
Slacker, 203 
Slater Law, 14 
Sniper, 204 
Soldier, School of, 34 
Spanish Main, 1 
Special training, value of, 
157 

Splints, 194 
SQUAD: 

Drilling a, 50 
Forming a, 50 
Left march, 57 
Make-up of, 48 
Right march, 55 
Right (or left) about 
march, 58' 

School of, 48 
What it is, 48 
SQUADS: 

Right (or left), column 
right (or left), 
march, 77 

Right (or left) march, 
72 

Squeeze, Trigger, 132 
St. John’s Military Acad¬ 
emy, 11 

Staff, General, 23 
Standing firing position, 125 
Star bomb, 204 


210 


INDEX 


STATE: 

Colleges, ii 
G uards, 13 
Organizations, 12 
Stock, small of, 88 
Strafe, 203 
Swank, 203 
SYMBOLS: 

Culture, 152 

Used for map making, 
I5I-.I54 

Vegetational, 154 
Water Feature, 153 

Take distance march, 60 
Take interval to the right 
(or left) march, 59 
Tank, 203 

Temper, on keeping your, 
198 

Terms you should know the 
meaning of, 200 
To the rear march, 43 
Tourniquet, 193 
Trail arms, 98 
Trained army, how it 
stopped the Germans, 
5 

Trained soldier, why you 
should be a, 2 
TRAINING, MILITARY: 
Compulsory, 7 
Proper, 6 

Value of special, 157 
Will help you, 8 
Trigger squeeze, 132 


TRENCH: 

Cross-section of, 184 
Described, 181-183 
Trenches, how opposing are 
laid out, 185 

UNIFORM: 

About your, 164, 166 
How to clean and care 
for, 165 

How to get into, 35 
Washing leggings, 163 
Uniformed, about being 
neatly, 34 
Unfix bayonet, 100 

Virginia Military Institute, 
11 

War, how it changes army 
needs, 6 
Washington, 2 
Water-moccasin, 1 
Weight, how to pass physi¬ 
cal examination, 19 
West Point, 15 
Why you should be a 
trained soldier, 2 
Williams, Capt. John Hod- 
der, 177 

Windage, how to correct 
for, 129 

Wounded man, how to 
carry, 195 


211 

















































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